1 The Hebrew Catholic, No. 78, Winter Spring 2003 The The The The The Hebrew Hebrew Hebrew Hebrew Hebrew Catholic Catholic Catholic Catholic Catholic Publication of the Association of Hebrew Catholics No. 78, Winter Spring 2003 “And so all Israel shall be saved” (Romans 11:26) The The The The The Hebrew Hebrew Hebrew Hebrew Hebrew Catholic Catholic Catholic Catholic Catholic Our new web site Our new web site Our new web site Our new web site Our new web site http://hebrewcatholic.org http://hebrewcatholic.org http://hebrewcatholic.org http://hebrewcatholic.org http://hebrewcatholic.org
Our new web siteOur new web siteOur new web siteOur new web siteOur new web sitehttp://hebrewcatholic.orghttp://hebrewcatholic.orghttp://hebrewcatholic.orghttp://hebrewcatholic.orghttp://hebrewcatholic.org
The Hebrew Catholic, No. 78, Winter Spring 20032
The Association of Hebrew Catholics aims at ending the alienationof Catholics of Jewish origin and background from their historicalheritage, by the formation of a Hebrew Catholic Community juridi-cally approved by the Holy See.
The kerygma of the AHC announces that the divine plan of salvationhas entered the phase of the Apostasy of the Gentiles, prophesied byOur Lord and St. Paul, and of which the Return of the Jews to theHoly Land is a corollary.
Association of Hebrew Catholics ~ InternationalFounder
Elias Friedman, O.C.D., 1916-1999 Spiritual Advisor
Msgr. Robert Silverman (United States)President
David Moss (United States) Secretary
Andrew Sholl (Australia)Advisory Board
Msgr. William A. Carew (Canada)Nick Healy (United States)
Association of Hebrew Catholics ~ United StatesDavid Moss, President
The Association of Hebrew Catholics (United States) is a non-profit corpo-ration registered in the state of New York. All contributions are tax deduct-
ible in accordance with §501(c)(3) of the IRS code.
Please send correspondence and contributions to:Association of Hebrew Catholics
Australia : 25 Rossiter St, CranbrookQueensland 4814, Australia
The Hebrew Catholic is published quarterly.Contributions to cover our production and postagecosts for four issues mailed from the U.S, are shownbelow. Write to addresses above for issues mailedin those countries. Contributions above our costs provide the fundsneeded for our work.
(All remittances must be in U.S. funds)US & Canada $15; Other Countries: $25
American Express, Discover, MasterCard & Visa accepted
as indicated in the article’s credits,2. articles which will not be printed in their com-
plete and unedited form. For these, we must ap-prove the edited version.
Credits for the article must include the name andissue number of our publication - The HebrewCatholic - and the U.S. address of the AHC.
Send a copy of the publication with the reprintedarticle to the AHC at its U.S. address.
The views expressed in the published articles arethose of the authors and do not necessarily reflect
the views of the AHC.
“Consider the primary aim of the group to be,not the conversion of the Jews
but the creation ofa new Hebrew Catholic community life and spirit,
an alternative society to the old.”A counsel from Elias Friedman, O.C.D.
The Association of Hebrew Catholics is under the patronage ofOur Lady of the Miracle
(who in the Church of St. Andrea della Fratte in Rome,on 20 January 1842, converted Alphonse Ratisbonne)
andSaint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)
Miriam, Our Lady of the Miracle, pray for us!
Saint Edith Stein, pray for us!
What They Have Said“ Judaism’s distinctive continuing light can add to the Church anorthopractic concern with the mitzvoth, the divine precepts, whose actu-alization is a sign that makes present the Creator’s reign and a celebra-tion of a total liturgy, referring the creation to the Creator and so conse-crating it to God through human agency.
“Since Judaism is not in the fullest sense a different religion from Chris-tianity, there can be and are such a thing as Hebrew Catholics ...”
Fr. Aidan Nichols, O.P., Epiphany: A Theological Introductionto Catholicism, in The Hebrew Catholic, #78, pg 16
vuvh oaç tçv LËrç
(Baruch haba b’Shem Adonai)Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord
News and Notes .............................................................................. 3Prayer Requests ............................................................................... 3Letters ............................................................................................. 4President’s Memo ........................................................................... 6Stories from the Diaspora, Roy Schoeman ......................................9AHC Calendar ............................................................................... 12In the Wake of Reflections on Covenant and Mission ..................13Vocation of Israel ... Remains Intact, Fr. Aidan Nichols, OP .......16AHC E-mail Discussion Group .................................................... 17In My Name, Fr. Ed Fride ............................................................22The Holy Tongue, Canon Michael Lewis .....................................23Eucharist and the Jewish Mystical Tradition, part 2, A. Bloomer .24A Light Touch From Our Web Site ............................................... 27From our Bookshelves .................................................................. 28
3The Hebrew Catholic, No. 78, Winter Spring 2003
News and Notes Prayer Requests
• for a new location to “settle in” and from which ourwork can develop
• for the people and funds needed to develop our work• that our web site will serve to edify and inspire others• that our web site will help us gather the people – i.e.,
Hebrew Catholics throughout the Church• that our web site will increase awareness of our work
and encourage others to collaborate with us• that our meeting last May with Fr. Kennedy, Fr.
Martin and Fr. Frizzell and Cardinal Keeler will yieldgood fruit
• that Israelites within the Church will find ways to liveout their irrevocable calling in service to the Churchand its mission in the world.
• that the work of Towards Jerusalem Council II will beused by God to promote true reconciliation amongChristians and between Christians and Jews
• blessings upon those who support the AHC through theirprayers and gifts
• for development of AHC Havurot• for development of the AHC in other countries• that the Father’s Will be manifest in all of our efforts
• that the Holy See will take the actions necessary to pre-serve the People Israel within the Church
• for the intentions and well-being of Pope John Paul II• for the blossoming of a new springtime of the Church• for the peace of Jerusalem and the well-being of the
Jewish people, the Arab peoples, and all peoples.
About this issueIt has been more than six months since we mailed our
last issue, #77. That is not how a quarterly journal is sup-posed behave. So, once again, I must apologize for thelong delay and thank you for your understanding and pa-tience.
Our primary occupation during this period has been theeffort to establish a web site and web store. We have alsobeen busy with theater, meetings, and now the effort tofind a new location. You will read about these things inthe President’s Memo.
Temporary New AddressOur previously anticipated address at 417 West Forest
Avenue is no longer a reality. Therefore, the following willserve as our mailing address until we relocate to new quar-ters. Please change our street address and zip to:
PO Box 980280 • Ypsilanti MI 48198
Our new flyerEnclosed with this issue you will find a flyer entitled
Are Jewish Converts Still Jewish? This flyer reproduces arecent interview David had with our diocesan magazine,Faith.
Please feel free to reproduce this flyer and give themout. All three of our flyers are available on our web site.At your request, we will be happy to send you additionalcopies for distribution. Though not required, a small con-tribution to help us cover costs is always appreciated.
Novena to St. Teresa Benedicta of the CrossOur annual novena to our patron saint runs from August
1-9. (You are welcome to pray the Novena at any time.)Please write if you do not have a copy of the Novena (ororder it from our web store). A suggested contribution of$2.50 for a single copy includes shipping. In your No-vena, please remember our need for new quarters.
Our cover - our new web siteThis is a picture of the top half of the first page or screen
that you see when visiting our web site. From there youcan go to a section which describes our work and to ourcalendar. You can also go to a variety of areas containingcopies of The Hebrew Catholic, biographies of HebrewCatholics, and articles on a multitude of topics. Our storeis also now operational.
We hope to soon have an active discussion forum, wherepeople from all over the world can “meet” and exchangeviews. We invite you to visit and send us your critiquesand suggestions.
Let others know about our new web site and storePutting up a web site is like getting a telephone. You
may have a new telephone and your number may be listedin some telephone book, but ... who knows?
So please consider the following opportunities to letothers know about our web site and store• in your emails and letters to others• in your Catholic organization bulletins or publications• in your parish bulletin or bulletin board• in your diocesan paper• by giving out copies of our new flyer
Our addresses• web site: http://hebrewcatholic.org• web store: http://hebrewcatholic.org/ahcstore.html• information: [email protected]
The Hebrew Catholic, No. 78, Winter Spring 20034
Letters
This is your column, your means to express your thoughts andto communicate with our readers. We invite your comments andviews. We will attempt to publish all letters as received. How-ever, we reserve the right to edit letters because of excessivelength, personal comments, or inappropriate matter.We honor all requests to not publish the letter writer’s name.We will also withhold the writer’s name if we feel the contentswarrant it.
From the Secretary of the IMJA, IsraelI’ve been reading The Hebrew Catholic for many years
during my service as Israel’s Secretary of the InternationalMessianic Jewish Alliance and the Messianic Alliance ofIsrael. I was also in contact with some of the HebrewCatholics and enjoyed the friendship of Brother Daniel(Oswald) Rufeisen and Fr. Elias Friedman. I have beenretired for several years and this past year restricted forhealth reasons. Thank you for sending me copies of TheHebrew Catholic during these years.
Yours in Yeshua,Menahem Benhayim, Israel
Planting seeds and watering with patienceMay this Holy Season which has given the world its
Savior brighten your souls with joy and peace.I hope all good blessings from Above are being show-
ered upon you and your good work at this time. I am stillhaving a hard time getting the brothers excited about ourJewish roots, but I’m planting seeds and watering themwith patience. I continue to remember you very much inprayer. Christ is born! Glorify Him!
Br. (Anonymous), United States
Journey back to the sourceEnclosed is ... for receiving the quarterly newsletter ...
please use the extra for whatever.So glad to make contact with the AHC, a sense of not
being alone in what was once a strange and forbiddencountry. The interesting thing was that in the journey intothe Catholic Church, in all issues of belief and practices,it took me back to the Jewish source more so than all the26 yrs in the Protestant Churches. Thank you.
Carrie Grayson, United States
I aim to pray for the Association daily ...Our conversation yesterday was more than a pleasure
for me ...I enclose my check for ... for a subscription to The He-
brew Catholic (issues after #77), for Fr. Friedman’s Jew-ish Identity and with a bit more for the cause. I wish I hadmore to send. (I am a man of 81 years, in retirement. I
attach an old resume.) I aim to pray for the Associationdaily, as I pray also for vocations for a Benedictine Abbeyof which I am Oblate (St. Anselm’s in Washington, D.C.).Also, I attach a page on the martyrdom, in Palestine in theyear 309, of five Egyptians to whom I shall commend yourcause. ... Yours sincerely,
Jeremy Thomas More Blanchet, United States
Enjoys “The Hebrew Catholic” The newsletters are one of my greater pleasures – not
to mention how much I am moved by many of the itemsincluded.
Francoise Morimoto, OCDS, United States
Organize groups of people ...The main mission of the AHC should be to organize
groups of people throughout the U.S. and internationally,especially in Latin America where there is great curiosityabout Jewish roots, to pray for a just peace in the HolyLand and throughout the Middle East. There should alsobe much prayer about God’s will toward His ChosenPeople and their relationship to the Catholic Church.
Raul Barriera, United States
Organize HC ministries ...... My vision for AHC is that it literally is a unity of all
the Hebrew Catholic organizations currently within theChurch. As more & more organizations spring up withinthe Church ministering to Hebrew Catholics, I would liketo see AHC be the umbrella parent or corporate head thateach of these other organizations become a part of. Eachof the other organizations would maintain their own au-tonomy & identity, but become part of AHC. For example,Remnant of Israel, Second Exodus, Torah of Christ, etc.keeps their own ministries & identity but unites under theAHC banner when dealing with recognition from the widerChurch and secular world. ...
... Very little ministry is done regarding us mischling (arather derogatory term but accurate nonetheless), mean-ing half-breed – We are literally both Jewish & Gentile. Ithink it is time this topic is dealt with in both communi-ties. We mischling have been around a long time & veryoften although we are both, we don’t really fit in eithercommunity. We do, however, fit in G-d’s communty ....
Michele Iaccino, United States
Continue to explain the work of the AHC... I especially feel the thesis of Fr. Friedman, the pur-
pose of the AHC continually needs to be explained. I per-sonally can share with you that the more I read The He-brew Catholic (and Fr. Friedman’s book), the more I un-derstand the mission of the AHC. May God continue tobless you both and the work of the AHC. A blessed Christ-mas and New Year, Shalom,
Michael Pennacchia, United States
5The Hebrew Catholic, No. 78, Winter Spring 2003
Now I know why I had guilt ...... 61 yrs. old, a Permanent Deacon at my parish ... My
late mother was Jewish but raised Baptist, became Catho-lic in 1936. My Dad was Presbyterian. My cousin in Ken-tucky told me about 20 yrs. ago of our Jewish background.Now I know why I had heartburn and a GUILT feeling allthose years. May Almighty God bless you all in your holywork, the Father the Son and Holy Spirit.
Deacon Jim Olinger, United States
Jewish people have a right to learn the truthThank you for last Hebrew Catholic. I sent a copy to
our Bishop. I’m proud of you and all those who contrib-uted in the name of the Truth that the Jewish people havea right to learn the truth of their own Messiah. Yeshua isthe fulfillment of their covenant with God. Keep up thecourage and fidelity. Yours in Yeshua & Miriam,
Sr. Mary of St. Joseph, OCD, New Zealand
Contribute for subscriptions to hierarchyKeep up the good work ... Suggestion – ask readers to
make donations to cover subscriptions to members of thehierarchy.
Br. (Anonymous) OFM Conv, United States
Regarding our new web site
Stick to fundamentals... Stick to the fundamentals: Fr. Friedman and AHC
writings ... Don’t include the calendar and Hebrew Catholicif they will distract readers from more important docu-ments ... Don’t distract readers with links or non-AHCJewish themes. ... Don’t inflame people with politics.
Are there approved Hebrew translations of the Mass andLiturgy of the Hours? Publish these.
William Ablondi, United States
Identify with state of Israel, fight antisemitism... About Israel – to be identified with our State – Israel... Not to be afraid to raise the subject of anti-semitism
and how to fight against it.... Not to be afraid of a bit (just a bit) of politics ...
Christ is the KingShlomit, Israel
Provide material to retain customs and traditionsI would suggest more info on how Jewish believers can
keep their customs and traditions while in the CatholicChurch. Also, I would suggest having more info regard-ing people who were (once) proselytes to Judaism andhow to help them avoid a wider scale of assimilation.
I was a proselyte to the Karaite Tradition of Judaism,and I really hope to see the AHC become the bridge to themissing link of Catholic Jewish believers. ...
Anonymous, United States
Some messages left at our new website
This web site is a blessing to so many people. You are inmy prayers and Masses. Beautiful web site. Congratula-tions! Fr. Sylvester Ajagbe
Former chaplain, Ave Maria College, Michigan
Very helpful – I’m glad I found you. Peter
I was a Catholic that married a Jewish man and con-verted. I loved Judaism. One problem: I still believe thatJesus was the Son of God. Now I can’t fit in either worldtotally. Maybe you will be good for my spirituality.
Kate
Praying with you. Richard
Everything is looking great ... especially the calendar.Really wonderful. May our Lord multiply your time.
Rosalind
Great to know this is here. I pray that many of the Houseof Israel will believe because of this wonderful ministry.Peace, Pax, Shalom. Rick
Can I join your Association even if I am not Jewish? Iam Catholic. Jose
I would like to join your Association, you are the an-swer to my prayers. God bless you. Monique
I am a Hebrew Catholic. I converted 7 years ago. I am alawyer and psychological counselor. In Christ’s love.
Karen
I am a Jewish convert to Catholicism. Bill
We want to say “Mazel Tov” for the new format of yourweb site. Our community has suffered a series of changesand reforms seeking the blessing to our loved CatholicChurch and our Jewish brothers. Like all Catholics ofHebrew tradition, we want to work like a team with you.If we can help you from Latin America, please tell us!Can you share more about your apostolate? We need shar-ing experiences with you in Spanish language. Shalom.
Rabbi Richard Gamboa ben-Eleazar
When does the next Hebrew Catholic come out? I sub-scribed in the winter but haven’t seen a recent issue yet.
Jonathan
I am so happy to have found your page. I'll make sure tovisit it on a regular basis. Thanks be to God.Miguel
WOW this is SO exciting - we are on the threshold ofsomething special here, I know it Sue
The Hebrew Catholic, No. 78, Winter Spring 20036
President’s Memo
“Blessed art thou, because thou hast made me glad.It has not happened to me as I expected;
but thou hast treated us according to thy great mercy.”Tobit 8:16
Shalom Chaverim (Friends):Though we have missed getting this issue out on sched-
ule, about 3 1/2 months ago, it seems like a lot more timehas passed. The primary activity that has consumed mostof my time has been the production of our web site andour web store. But, a lot else has happened and is happen-ing. Let me review the period since issue #77..
Christmas 2002We mailed the last issue (#77) during the last part of
November, freeing us to get caught up with a lot ofadministrivia and prepare for the upcoming holy days.
This Christmas was a very special time for a number ofreasons. Kathleen’s mother had died the previous May andKathleen’s stepfather, Mac, had begun to study the Catholicfaith in September, at age 78.
As January approached, I looked forward to the researchand study needed to build our web sites. Around the endof January-early February was also the time we were sup-posed to move into our new facilities at 417 West ForestAvenue.
Wake-up CallOn January 9, I woke up and found that I had lost the
fine muscle control of the left side of my body. What thismeant, for instance, was that I could grasp a pen and bringit to the paper but I could not exercise the control neededfor writing.
Kathleen took me to the hospital emergency room be-cause of the possibility of a stroke. By the afternoon, mostof the symptoms had disappeared and by evening I wasfeeling fine. Nonetheless, I remained in the hospital forfour more days undergoing tests.
The doctors found no damage and no evidence of anyproblem remaining. They strongly believe that one of thecapillaries in my brain spasmed, momentarily affectingother areas in my brain, thereby causing the loss of musclecontrol. The reason for the spasm, the doctors agreed, wasmost likely my smoking habit. I had smoked cigarettessince I was 15 years of age.
How easily one takes for granted the gifts of God. Formost of my 61 years, I have had pretty good health. ThoughI had come to understand that, statistically, smoking wasnot good for me, the struggle to quit was one I had contin-ued putting off. That is, until January 9.
Surprise!After returning from the hospital and attending to some
business, my thoughts turned to our upcoming move. Icalled the people at Ave Maria College to get the latestinfo for our move into our new quarters.
As it turned out, the refurbishing had been suspendedby the beginning of December, and this building was nolonger available for us.
As you probably know, Ave Maria College in Michiganis planning to become Ave Maria University in Florida,surrounded by a new town also called Ave Maria. It is avery ambitious project, attempting to realize the educa-tional vision of Tom Monaghan. It has drawn the supportof many notable Catholics, including Fr. Fessio who servesas Chancellor of the new university-in-progress.
Ave Maria College in Michigan plans to remain opera-tive for another few years. However, most of the resourcesnot required for existing operations in Michigan are beingredirected south to Florida. Hence, the fate of 417 WestForest Avenue.
And so once again, under God’s providence, we knewwe had to find another place to settle and establish a cen-ter for our work. But at the moment, we were preoccupiedwith ...
... Catholic theater and Edith SteinThe next few months would prove to be somewhat hec-
tic. Plans and work were developing for an Edith Steinplay at Ave Maria; an Edith Stein playwriting competitionfor Ave Maria students jointly sponsored by Ave Mariaand the AHC; continued work on our web site; and Mac’shome study of the Faith. And coming up was Passover,Lent and Easter.
As reported in the last issue (#77, News and Notes, pg 3), Kath-leen had enlisted the support of two Catholic playwrights,Arthur Giron and Buzz McLaughlin, for an AHCplaywriting competition amongst students at Ave MariaCollege.
The unexpected fruit of this effort was that the Ave MariaDrama department decided that their spring productionwould be the performance of Arthur Giron’s highly-ac-claimed play, Edith Stein. In 1988, his play broke the box-office record “in the 13 year history of the Pittsburgh Pub-lic Theater.”
The play was finally performed at Ave Maria Collegefrom April 9-12. It was directed by Britta Berlonghieriand produced by Ken Gaertner, both Adjunct Professorsof Drama at Ave Maria College. It received an excellentreview by Chris Potter of the Ann Arbor News.
At the opening of the first performance on April 9, I
7The Hebrew Catholic, No. 78, Winter Spring 2003
up of the Gentile church leaders, who would recognizeand welcome the Jewish believers in Yeshua withoutrequiring them to abandon their Jewish identity andpractice.”
Peter Herbeck, Vice President of Ralph Martin’s Re-newal Ministries, and his wife Debbie, a Hebrew Catho-lic, both attended this conference. In fact, it was Peter’sefforts and Renewal Ministries’ generosity which providedthe financial support that enabled us to attend. We are mostgrateful.
The conference was enjoyable and inspiring. Many ofthe Evangelical Christian and Messianic Jewish leadersand speakers there seemed to have developed very posi-tive attitudes with regard to Catholics and the CatholicChurch.
From the presentations, we learned about meetings tak-ing place between the TJCII leaders and leaders of thevarious Christian churches.
We learned about the amazing growth of MessianicSynagogues in several countries of the former SovietUnion, including: Russia, Ukraine, Moldovia and Belarus.
And we learned a little more about the theology andhistory behind TJCII from the presentations of the twoCatholic members of their board, Johannes Fichtenbauer,Deacon to Cardinal Schonborn, and Fr. Peter Hocken.
Overall, I was greatly encouraged by this conference. The Messianic Jewish movement, which exists outside
of the Catholic Church, parallels some of the goals of theAHC within the Church. Not only does it seem to be anadded confirmation of Fr. Elias’ thesis, but through theirunique situation, the Messianic Jewish movement bringsa dynamic and visible witness to their goals, and ours aswell.
These Jewish believers are full of the joy of knowingJesus, zealous to share that joy with others, especially theirJewish brothers and sisters. How different is the attitudeexpressed by the Catholic scholars who, in the documentReflections on Covenant and Mission, argue that we shouldnot invite Jews to the joy of knowing Jesus. This brings usto our next meeting.
Meeting #2 - Washington, DCIn March, Fr. Arthur Kennedy called to invite me and
three other Hebrew Catholics to come to Washington toshare our thoughts regarding Reflections and other mat-ters and to meet Cardinal Keeler.
Fr. Kennedy is the new Executive Director of the Bish-ops’ Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.It appears that the Reflections document appeared on theBishops’ web site while Fr. Kennedy was assuming hisnew position. Thankfully, it has since been removed.
Our meeting was scheduled for May 21 at the John PaulII Cultural Center. Attending with me was ArielaLeGendre, an Israeli now living with her husband in Texas,
Mac
announced that Ave Maria student Paul Bower had wonthe playwriting competition for his play, A Search for Bur-ied Treasure, and presented him our award. Paul’s playwas publicly read in the Ave Maria auditorium on April13 and may be read on our web site.
Our new websiteOn March 11, Fr. Friedman’s 87th birthday, we launched
our new website. While the store was not yet operational,we were able to include the contents of issue #77 (dealingwith the Reflections document), the text of our flyers anda small variety of other material. The cover of this issueshows part of the first screen you see when you reach oursite. If you are able, drop by and leave us a note on the“Contacts” page.
We wish to thank all who returned the survey and helpedus decide on content and priorities.
Mac Embry comes homeEaster arrived and so did Mac.
It was a glorious Easter Vigil,3 1/2 hours long at Christ theKing Parish in Ann Arbor,with Kathleen and meserving as Mac’s spon-sors. And so, at age 78,after 24 years of his wife,Jane, praying for him andnow rooting for him fromthe gallery up above, Macwas baptized, confirmed withthe name Christopher, and had hisfirst Communion. Hallellu Ya!
May - a very special monthThis month was special because it was dedicated to hon-
oring Miriam, Mother of our Lord; because Kathleen andI shared the joy of celebrating the second anniversary ofour marriage in Christ; and this year, because of three meet-ings that took place.
Meeting #1 - Dallas, TexasThe first was a conference that was held on May 12-13
at the Baruch HaShem Messianic Synagogue in Dallas,Texas. This was the North American Conference of theinitiative called Towards Jerusalem Council II (TJCII).
In a previous issue (#76, pg 27), we wrote of this initiativewhose purpose, is taken from their Vision statement:
“Toward Jerusalem Council II is an initiative of re-pentance and reconciliation between the Jewish andGentile segments of the Church. The vision is that oneday there will be a second Council of Jerusalem thatwill be, in an important respect, the inverse of the firstcouncil described in Acts 15. Whereas the first Coun-cil was made up of Jewish believers in Yeshua whodecided not to impose on the Gentiles the requirementsof the Jewish law, so the second Council would be made
The Hebrew Catholic, No. 78, Winter Spring 20038
my sister, Rosalind, from California, and Roy Schoemanfrom Massachussetts.
With Fr. Kennedy were Fr. Francis Martin and Fr.Lawrence Frizzell. Fr. Martin holds the Chair for Catho-lic-Jewish Theological Studies at the Pope John Paul IICultural Center, Washington, DC. Fr. Frizzell is Directorof Jewish-Christian Studies at Seton Hall University, SouthOrange, NJ.
During the morning session, Ariela, Rosalind, Roy andI each spoke about our journey to Jesus and the Church.During the afternoon session, following Mass and lunch,the three priests each spoke a little about how they wereengaged in the ongoing theological work of trying to ad-dress all that Nostra Aetate and the leadership of the HolyFather has inspired.
We would have needed much more time and perhapsbetter preparation to cover all that, in hindsight, we wishedwe had covered. What did became clear, and somewhatencouraging, was that the three priest-theologians allagreed that Reflections was a terrible document and thatmuch theological work was needed. Fr. Kennedy reiter-ated that this meeting was an expression of the serious-ness with which they took our concerns.
Cardinal Keeler arrived in the evening to join us for din-ner. We had an interesting exchange during which welearned that the Cardinal hadn’t read Reflections before itwas posted on the Bishops’ web site. In fact, he indicatedthat the document did not reflect his own views.
I am grateful for this meeting with Fr. Kennedy, Fr.Martin, Fr. Frizzell, and Cardinal Keeler. I am also grate-ful that Ariela, Rosalind, Roy and myself were given theopportunity to represent our Lord’s love for His PeopleIsrael. May our ongoing prayers and efforts eventually bearfruit in an Israelite community within the Church, whichwill require no words and leave no doubt that Jesus-of-the-Jews is also Jesus-for-the-Jews.
Meeting #3 - Washington, DCI arrived in Washington, DC on May 19 so that I could
meet with Fr. John McCloskey on May 20. Fr. McCloskeyis an Opus Dei priest who runs the Catholic InformationCenter in Washington. Father had previously indicated aninterest in our work.
We discussed the work of the AHC, and Father made itclear that he thought our work was very important. Healso thought that our work ought to be conducted in thegreater New York metropolitan area, an area which hasthe largest Jewish, Catholic and Hebrew Catholic popula-tions. Towards that end, Father strongly suggested thatwe see Bishop Myers of Newark.
In light of our new situation in Michigan, Father’sthoughts and suggestion seemed very timely. I have writ-ten to Bishop Myers even while we continue to exploreother possibilities here in Michigan. I must add that in the
Catholic community here, we have found a great amountof moral and spiritual support.
Our new web site storeFollowing the uplifting and energizing meetings during
our Lady’s month, I returned to the work of the momentwhich was to complete the tasks necessary to open ourweb store.
In addition to getting much of our inventory scanned in,along with the necessary commentary, we had to also pro-vide the ability for people to pay for purchases. This abil-ity would also serve those who wished to make onlinedonations to the AHC.
What made this process somewhat complicated was theneed to provide for international shipping and payment.My son, Matthew, a computer programmer, came to therescue. He created the necessary software and dynamicinterface with the United States Postal Service. I wouldlike to publicly thank Matthew for his gift to the AHC.
Thus, in the first week of June, we were able to openour store as part of our web site.
We hope you will have the opportunity to review theweb site and the store. It is only the beginning and welook forward to adding more material, as time allows.
Of course we always welcome your critiques and sug-gestions, whether they have to do with appearance, us-ability or content.
And finally .... . . #78, the Winter-Spring issue of 2003. Since you will
have received this issue in July or August, then you al-ready know that the summer issue is late. Please acceptour apologies in advance.
I would like to tell you that now, since the work of learn-ing and developing our web site is complete, The HebrewCatholic would once again try to live up to its calling as aquarterly. Unfortunately, with another relocation comingup, as God wills, I am sure one of the upcoming issueswill be delayed.
We are grateful for all that our Lord continues to bringto pass. We are grateful that the AHC stands as a harbin-ger of that Israelite community in the Church whose ex-istence will be a witness to Jesus, Israel’s Messiah, and totheir irrevocable calling remaining operative within theChurch.
Please continue to pray for our work, especially duringour annual Novena to St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross(Edith Stein) from August 1-9.
Wishing you a spiritually refreshing summer (or winterfor the chaverim down under)
In the hearts of Yeshua, Miriam and St. Edith Stein
9The Hebrew Catholic, No. 78, Winter Spring 2003
Stories From the Diaspora
Ed. The following account was first published in “Christ to theWorld”. Roy has made some changes for this edition.
My parents were observant Jews in Europe who fled tothe U.S. to escape the Holocaust. I was raised as a “con-servative” Jew, and was rather pious by nature and veryenthusiastic about the religious instruction I received andthe religious activities I participated in. I went to mysynagogue’s after-school Jewish religious education pro-gram (“Hebrew School”) all the way through grammerand high school. By high school it was the main focus ofmy identity and activities, even though by that point therewere only about a half-dozen of us who had continued inthe program. I was very close to my rabbi and to severalof the seminarians who were my Hebrewschool teachers. As Providence had it, myhometown rabbi was Arthur Hertzberg. Oneof the highest-profile rabbis in the U.S., hewas president of the American Jewish Con-gress, advisor to several presidents, andwrote a number of best-selling books on Ju-daism and Jewish history. My favorite He-brew school teacher, with whom I was par-ticularly close, also became a very promi-nent rabbi who later headed the largest Jew-ish rabbinical seminary in the U.S..
Growing up I was unusually devout andpassionate about God and Judaism, althoughthe suburban conservative context I was indid not really support a life of piety, faithand prayer. In my senior year of high school I met a verycharismatic “mystic” Hasidic Rabbi (Shlomo Carlebach)who used to go around the country giving “concerts” whichwere really prayer meetings over which he would preside,playing guitar and leading Hasidic worship songs, inter-spersed with religious story-telling and teaching. He hada large following among Jewish hippies and college stu-dents. I fell in with him, and spent the following summertraveling with him in Israel in his entourage. I wanted tolive my life for God and with God, and while in Israel Iconsidered abandoning my plans to go to M.I.T. in orderto stay in Israel studying at one of the Jerusalem yeshivas(which are schools where young men devote their time toprayer and religious study, the closest thing Judaism hasto religious life). But I was turned off by a certain sterilityand coldness which I saw in them, and which did not speakof real intimacy with God.
So I returned to the U.S. and started at M.I.T. I felt very
lost, because anything which did not have God at its cen-ter seemed to have no point or meaning, yet there wasnothing I could “do” which did have God at its center.The former Hebrew school teacher with whom I was closehad also by then moved to Boston, where he started a kindof counter-culture, hippie-oriented Jewish seminary/com-mune. During my first few weeks at M.I.T. I considereddropping out, but he encouraged me to stay, and I did,spending much of my free time at his seminary/commune.
Although I tried to maintain my religious orientation,there was a fatal flaw in it which soon led me astray. I hadno understanding of the relationship between religion andmorality, particularly sexual morality. So my religiositysoon became mixed up in the drug and “free love” culturewhich was rampant, and soon degenerated into the im-moral, vague hippie “spirituality” of the time. My thirstfor God became, for a long while, sated by the false con-
solations and delusional spirituality of thatenvironment.
For the next fifteen years, I lived my lifein a tremendous inner tension. I had a yearn-ing for transcendent meaning, and a refusalto let go of that yearning for more than shortperiods, but had no knowledge of what thatyearning was truly for, and hence no senseof a direction to go in. Because a conven-tional engineer’s life in the U.S. had no“meaning”, I moved to Denmark, because Isensed, in the deeper relationship whichDanes had with life and family, a greaterspiritual meaning; once there, however, itwas obviously not my real life so I returned.For a few years after my return, while work-
ing as a programmer, I lived for rock-climbing, with theexcitement and sense of danger and accomplishment whichit produced, providing an anesthetic for my thirst for mean-ing. In 1978 I went back to school, to Harvard BusinessSchool for an M.B.A., but the momentary feelings of suc-cess which that produced did not assuage my desperationfor real meaning for long. Anything which I tried, whethera career switch or a romantic relationship, only produceda momentary illusion of purpose which soon faded, leav-ing me with the desperate sense that there must be some-thing more. That is why I never settled in to a career, ormarried.
At Harvard Business School I did extraordinarily well,winning most of the available awards in my class, andgraduating among the top few with “High Distinction.”Shortly after graduation I was invited to join the faculty,and did so, teaching the core marketing course in theM.B.A. program. Yet even the success of being a Harvard
Unsought and UndeservedRoy Schoeman
The Hebrew Catholic, No. 78, Winter Spring 200310
Business School professor, and a very popular one at that,at thirty years of age did not assuage my sense of point-lessness. I loved the teaching and the students but did notfind much interest in the subject matter itself. After teach-ing, Harvard offered to support me (very generously) whileI completed a doctorate so that I could qualify for tenure,but once into my dissertation, my lack of genuine interestcaught up with me, and I went back to consulting.
It was around this time that I got involved with my last“false consolation”, my last false direction to providemeaning to my life. As a child I had been an enthusiasticdownhill skier, but I gave it up when I went to college. Inow took it up again with a vengeance, supporting myselfwith consulting while spending most of every winter ski-ing in the Alps. I became very good, and my skiing com-panions in the Alps were all professional skiers, “circuit”skiers, Olympic hopefuls, etc. For a few years I lived forskiing, finding enough consolation in the physical excite-ment, the speed, the aesthetics, the sense of accomplish-ment, the camaraderie, to dull the thirst for meaning inmy life.
Of course God was using everything in my life to bringme to Him, and it would soon bear fruit. It was when Iwas in the spectacular natural beauty of the Alps that Ibecame aware of the existence of God for the first timesince college. I remember the scene – I was high up onthe mountain, still well above tree line, shortly after sun-set, with the sky glowing a soft red and the snow and gran-ite glowing blue in the twilight. My heart opened withgratitude, and I knew that such beauty had been createdby God. It is worth noting that the area of Austria whichI was in was still deeply and piously Catholic, with beau-tiful crucifixes everywhere, both inside the houses, hotelsand restaurants and also along the roads and even trails.Even in the ski town, the Church was packed for SundayMass. (In fact, in the bed-and-breakfast where I was stay-ing a carved wooden crucifix, with corpus, hung over mybed. Every evening when I returned to the room I wouldremove it and place it in a drawer – I had no desire tosleep under a cross! – and the following day I would findit had been rehung over the bed,without comment, by thedevout, elderly woman in whose home I was staying).
After a few years of living for skiing, that too began topale, and I became more and more despondent. The onlyrelief I could find was spending time alone in nature, try-ing to recapture a hint of the consolation which I had feltin the Alps. During the spring of 1987 I took a few daysoff from work and went to Cape Cod to spend time innature there. I was walking in the early morning, in thewoods just back from the beach, when God intervened,dramatically and distinctly, in my life to pull me back andput me onto the right path. As I was walking, lost in mythoughts, I found myself in the immediate presence of God.It is as though I “fell into Heaven.” Everything changedfrom one moment to the next, but in such a smooth and
subtle way that I was not aware of any discontinuity. Ifelt myself in the immediate presence of God. I was awareof His infinite exaltedness, and of His infinite and per-sonal love for me. I saw my life as though I was lookingback on it after death, in His presence, and could see ev-erything which I would be happy about and everythingwhich I would wish I had done differently. I saw thatevery action I had ever done mattered, for good or forevil. I saw that everything which had ever happened inmy life had been perfectly designed for my own good fromthe infinitely wise and loving hand of God, not only in-cluding but especially those things which I at the time Ithought had been the greatest catastrophes. I saw that mytwo greatest regrets when I died would be every momentwhich I had wasted not doing anything of value in theeyes of God, and all of the time and energy which I hadwasted worrying about not being loved when every mo-ment of my existence I was bathed in an infinite sea oflove, although unaware of it. I saw that the meaning andpurpose of my life was to worship and serve my Lord andMaster, in whose presence I found myself. I wanted toknow His name, so that I could worship Him properly, sothat I could follow “His” religion. I remember silentlypraying “Tell me your name. I don’t mind if You’re Apollo,and I have to become a Roman pagan. I don’t mind ifYou’re Krishna, and I have to become a Hindu. I don’tmind if You’re Buddha, and I have to become a Buddhist.As long as You’re not Christ, and I have to become a Chris-tian!” (Jewish readers might be able to identify with thisdeep-rooted aversion to Christianity, based on the mis-taken belief that it was the “enemy” which lay behind twothousand years of persecution of the Jews.)
Not surprisingly, He did not tell me His name. Obvi-ously, I wasn’t ready to hear it – my resistance at the timewas still too great. But I knew, from that moment on, themeaning and purpose and goal of my life; and that sensehas not faded or wavered, although the immediate state ofperception did.
When I got back home, everything was different. I re-member calling my mother and telling her “Mom, I havegood news! It’s all true! You don’t ever die...” only to bemet with a sort of stony silence. It had never occurred tome that she might not believe me – after all, I knew frommy own direct experience! Although I went back to myconsulting, everything was now different, and I set out ona focused search to find my Lord and Master and Godwhom I had met on the beach that day.
Because I interpreted the experience as a “mystical” one,I initially looked towards mysticism, which led me to alot of blind alleys. Prior to my experience I had not hadany interest at all in mysticism or any of the New Agereligions or meditative practices or occultism, and thoseare what I first came across. I spent a number of monthslooking in that, essentially Hindu although disguised, di-rection.
11The Hebrew Catholic, No. 78, Winter Spring 2003
Yet every night before going to sleep, I would say ashort prayer to know the name of my Lord and Masterand God whom I had met on the beach. A year to the dayafter the initial experience, I went to sleep after sayingthat prayer, and felt as though I was woken by a gentlehand on my shoulder, and escorted to a room where I wasleft alone with the most beautiful young woman I couldimagine. I knew without being told that she was theBlessed Virgin Mary. I felt entirely awake (and mymemory is as though I had been awake), although I wasdreaming. I remember my first reaction, standing thereawed by her presence and grandeur, was wishing I knewat least the Hail Mary so that I could honor her! She of-fered to answer any questions I had. I remember thinkingabout what to ask, asking the questions, and her answers.After speaking to me a while longer, the audience wasended. When I woke the next morning I was hopelesslyin love with the Blessed Virgin Mary, and I knew that theGod I had met on the beach was Christ, and that all I wantedwas to be as much of, and as good a, Christian as possible.I still did not know anything about Christianity, nor thedifference between the Catholic Church and any of thehundreds of Protestant denominations. It took me anothertwo years or so to find my way to the Catholic Church,guided by my love and reverence for the Blessed VirginMary.
I will just touch briefly on some of the milestones whichled me to the Catholic Church. After the dream of Mary,I started going to a local Protestant Church, but left whenI asked the pastor about Mary and he made a disparagingremark. I started hanging around Marian shrines, particu-larly a shrine of Our Lady of La Salette which was inIpswich, Mass., about 40 minutes from my house. On awinter ski trip to the Alps, I decided to visit the real LaSalette apparition site (in the French Alps), and ended upspending the rest of the “ski” trip there, in deep prayer(more details on that stay can be found on my website,www.salvationisfromthejews.com). Someone I met thererecommended that I make a visit to a Carthusian monas-tery, and I ended up doing so, spending a week there, on akind of solitary “come and see” although I was still Jew-ish! There I became aware, for the first time, how theCatholic Church was itself an outgrowth of Judaism. Itwas unavoidably obvious, given how the monks spentmany hours a day chanting the Old Testament psalms, withtheir continual references to Israel, Zion, Jerusalem, theJewish Patriarchs, and the Jewish people, visibly identi-fying with the “Israel” of the psalms (that is, the Jews). Asmall illustration: One day when I was working alone inthe fields, an elderly monk came out to speak with me.He approached and shyly asked, “Tell us, if you don’t mind– We couldn’t help noticing that you do not receive com-munion, so you must not be Catholic. What then are you?”When I replied “Jewish”, he grinned and with a deep sighsaid “That’s a relief! We were afraid you were Protes-
tant!”. At the time I had no understanding at all of thedifference between Protestants and Catholics – they werejust meaningless words to me describing Christians – yetI was deeply struck by the fact that in some mysteriousway this monk identified with Jews as opposed to Protes-tants. I later realized that in his eyes Jews were “elderbrothers in the Faith” who had not yet received the graceto recognize the Messiahship of Jesus, whereas Protes-tants had once had, but then rejected, the fullness of thetruth.
During that week I grew to feel Mary’s central, pen-etrating presence in the Catholic Church. I also started tobe deeply distressed at being unable to receive commun-ion. It was my desire to receive communion which, morethan anything else, drew me to the Baptismal font. I hadsought out a Jewish priest, Father Raphael Simon, (re-ferred to me by the Carthusian Prior) for baptism. He wasa former (Jewish) University of Chicago Philosophy pro-fessor and New York City psychiatrist, who became aTrappist monk (his conversion story is published underthe title The Glory of Thy People.) When I first met withhim he asked me why I wanted to be baptised. Since Iknew that I couldn’t truthfully say (at the time) that it wasbecause I believed in all of Catholic doctrine, I angrilyblurted out “Because I want to receive communion andotherwise you won’t let me !” I thought he would throwme out on my ear, but instead he nodded sagely and said“Ah, that’s the Holy Spirit at work...”
So in early 1992 I was baptized and confirmed (by adifferent priest, as it turned out), just in time for anothermore extended stay at the Carthusian monastery, to dis-cern whether that was my vocation. It wasn’t (althoughthe Prior continued for many years to be my spiritual di-rector), but the fanaticism which characterized my pre-conversion life has served me well, now that I have foundthe true direction for my life.
Although I have no religious or priestly vocation, thereis (please God) nothing in my life which is not for Himand around Him. In a number of small ways I am activein the Church, with daily Mass and prayer being at thecenter of my life – writing, teaching or speaking when-ever asked, producing and hosting a Catholic TV talk show.I have just completed a book on the role of Judaism insalvation history, Salvation is from the Jews, which is be-ing published this year by Ignatius Press. It should giveChristians a deeper understanding of Judaism as the reli-gion which God created to bring about the incarnation ofGod as man, as well as the religion into which He incar-nated. To Jews it should reveal the full glory and impor-tance of Judaism, a glory which can only be recognized inthe light of the truths of the Catholic Faith. My hope isthat by illuminating Judaism with a deeper meaning andsignificance than Jews see from within their own faith,their pride in being Jewish will draw them towards, ratherthan away from, the Catholic Church. (More details on
The Hebrew Catholic, No. 78, Winter Spring 200312
that are given on my website www.salvationisfromthejews.com)I will never know, this side of Heaven, whose prayers
and sacrifices purchased the graces for my entirelyunsought after and undeserved conversion, but I can onlythank them profoundly, and exhort others, too, to pray forthe conversion of the Jews; that the people to whom Jesusfirst made Himself known may come into the truth andinto the fullness of their relationship to Him in the Catho-lic Church. How tragic that we to whom God first re-vealed Himself as Man should be among the last to recog-nize Him! In the words of the Postulatum from the FirstVatican Council, signed by the Fathers of the Council andendorsed by Pope Pius IX (but never formally promul-gated due to the Council’s premature termination uponthe outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War):
“The undersigned Fathers of the Council humbly yeturgently beseechingly pray that the Holy EcumenicalCouncil of the Vatican deign to come to the aid of theunfortunate nation of Israel with an entirely paternalinvitation; that is, that it express the wish that, finallyexhausted by a wait no less futile than long, the Israel-ites hasten to recognize the Messiah, our Savior JesusChrist, truly promised to Abraham and announced byMoses; thus completing and crowning, not changing,the Mosaic religion.“... the undersigned Fathers have the very firm confi-dence that the holy Council will have compassion onthe Israelites, because they are always very dear toGod on account of their fathers, and because it is fromthem that the Christ was born according to the flesh ...“Would that they then speedily acclaim the Christ, say-ing ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed be He whocomes in the name of the Lord!“Would that they hurl themselves into the arms of theImmaculate Virgin Mary, even now their sister accord-ing to the flesh, who wishes likewise to be their motheraccording to grace as she is ours!”
Our Lady of Zion, pray for us!
Ed. Roy can be reached at [email protected]. Hehas also produced a web site to support his soon-to-be-pubished book “Salvation is From the Jews.” Among manyarticles, the web site contains his account of our trip toWashington, DC The web site is at:
http://www.salvationisfromthejews.com
August 2003 5763 Av1 [ AHC Novena to St. Edith Stein - day 1 ] 33 Sunday - 18th of Ordinary Time 5
[ The Seven Maccabees, martyrs ]6 Transfiguration of the Lord (Feast) 89 [ AHC Novena to St. Edith Stein - day 9 ] 1110 Sunday - 19th of Ordinary Time 1215 Assumption of the Virgin Mary 1716 [ Joachim, husband of Anna ] 1817 Sunday - 20th of Ordinary Time 1920 [ Samuel, prophet ] 2224 Sunday - 21st of Ordinary Time 2628 Rosh Chodesh 30
[ Baptism of Hermann Cohen ]
5763 Elul29 Rosh Chodesh 131 Sunday - 22nd of Ordinary Time 3
* Joseph of Arimathea & Nicodemus
September1 [ Joshua and Gideon ] 44 [ Moses, legislator ] 76 [ Zechariah and Haggai, prophets ] 97 Sunday - 23rd of Ordinary Time 108 Birth of the Virgin Mary (Feast) 1114 Sunday - Triumph of the Holy Cross (Feast) 1721 Sunday - 25th of Ordinary Time 2426 Erev Rosh Hashanah 29
5764 Tishrei27 Rosh Hashanah 128 Sunday - 26th of Ordinary Time 229 Michael, Gabriel and Raphael - archangels (Feast) 3
* Philip, the Deacon12 Sunday - 28th of Ordinary Time 1618 Saint Luke, evangelist (Feast) 22
Shmini Atzeret19 Sunday - 29th in Ordinary Time 23
Simchat Torah22 [ Mary Salome, mother of James and John ] 2626 Sunday - 30th of Ordinary Time 30
Rosh Chodesh
Cheshvan27 Rosh Chodesh 128 Ss. Simon and Jude, apostles (Feast) 2
November1 All Saints 62 Sunday - 31st Ord Time - All Souls 7
AHC Calendar
Notes for the Calendar Due to limited space, we have not included memorials and op-tional memorials in the calendar.* = name from Proper of Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem[ ... ] = AHC date or name from the Roman Martyrology
13The Hebrew Catholic, No. 78, Winter Spring 2003
In the Wake of“Reflections on Covenant and Mission”
David Moss
The last issue of The Hebrew Catholic was sent to ev-ery bishop in the United States and to others in the hierar-chy throughout the world. We were gratified to receiveresponses from several bishops and from Cardinal Kasper.We also received a response from Fr. Arthur Kennedy, thenew Executive Director of the Bishops’ Ecumenical andInterreligious Affairs Committee, who invited me and threeother Hebrew Catholics to a meeting in Washington, D.C.(see President’s Memo).
There were also some significant responses in the me-dia. The National Catholic Register Symposium was in-cluded in our last issue. Let us look at some others.
Response by Cardinal Avery DullesThere was a response from Cardinal Avery Dulles, en-
titled Covenant and Mission, in the October 14, 2002 is-sue of America. The full response may be read at the fol-lowing web address:
http://www.sfarchdiocese.org/dulles.htmlFor our purposes here, I will only relate some of the
Cardinal’s points about Reflections.“The statement is ambiguous, if not erroneous, in itstreatment of topics such as evangelization, mission,covenant and dialogue.”
Cardinal Dulles explores Reflections’ treatment of evan-gelization and concludes that:
“[The Holy Father] writes: ‘The vital core of the newevangelization must be a clear and unequivocal proc-lamation of the person of Jesus Christ’ (No. 66). Cov-enant and Mission presents a concept of evangeliza-tion in which this vital core is dispensable.”
The Cardinal continues to examine Reflections’ treat-ment of mission and quotes the Holy Father:
“...‘missionary evangelization is the primary servicethat the Church can render to every individual and allhumanity in the modern world’ (Redemptoris Missio, No. 2).The call to conversion, says the pope, must not be dis-missed as ‘proselytization’ in the pejorative sense ofthat word, since it corresponds to the right of everyperson to hear the good news of the God who giveshimself in Christ.”
Cardinal Dulles then examines Reflections’ treatment ofcovenant and, looking at Hebrews, notes:
“The most formal statement on the status of the Sinaicovenant under Christianity appears in the Letter tothe Hebrews, which points out that in view of the newcovenant promised by God through the prophetJeremiah, the first covenant is ‘obsolete’ and ‘ready tovanish away’ (Heb. 8:13). The priesthood and the law havechanged (Heb. 7:12). Christ, we are told, ‘abolishes the
first [covenant] in order to establish the second’ (Heb.
10:9).”Cardinal Dulles also recognizes that:“the promises of God to Israel remain valid. The He-brew Scriptures, containing God’s promises, have en-during value, but are to be interpreted in the light ofChrist to whom they point forward.”
and“Paul in fact looks forward to a day when all Israelwill recognize Christ and be saved (11:26). He does notmean that Israel is already saved by adherence to theSinai covenant. In view of his promises to them, Godhas a special providence over Israel. The Jews have astatus distinct from the Gentiles.”
Finally, Cardinal Dulles reviews Reflections’ discussionof dialogue, and finding it wanting, concludes that:
“The document Covenant and Mission does not forth-rightly present what I take to be the Christian positionon the meaning of Christ for Judaism.”
The Scholars Respond to Cardinal DullesIn the October 21, 2002 issue of America, Mary C. Boys,
Philip A. Cunningham, and John T. Pawlikowski, mem-bers of the Christian Scholars Group on Christian JewishRelations, responded to Cardinal Dulles’ critique.
The full text of their response is available athttp://www.umanitoba.ca/stpauls/pub/pdf/1.pdf
The scholars remind us, as did Reflections, that Jewshave at various times over the last two millennia beentreated very poorly by Catholics. But instead of providingguidelines for sensitive, prudent, and respectful ways ofwitnessing to the Jewish people about their own Messiah,these scholars defend Reflections and critique CardinalDulles.
To illustrate their thinking, let me quote the first sen-tence in a few successive paragraphs of their response:
“Much of Cardinal Dulles’ s critique of these conceptsin Reflections flows from his reading of the New Testa-ment. ...”“Thus, we are troubled by Cardinal Dulles’s assertionthat the Letter to the Hebrews offers “the most formalstatement of the status of the Sinai Covenant underChristianity. ...”“In contrast, we argue that official Catholic teachingtoday has, in the Biblical Commission’s 1993 formula-tion, ‘gone its own way’ and ‘set aside’ the opinion ofthe author of Hebrews about Israel’s covenant. ...”“The magisterium can explicitly contradict an idea ofan individual New Testament author because the Catho-lic tradition is one of commentary , not of sola scriptura(Scripture alone). ...”
What appears to have ‘gone its own way’ and been ‘setaside’ is the faith of these scholars.
The Hebrew Catholic, No. 78, Winter Spring 200314
tion in a mysterious way that is not easy to formulate.Such a formulation will not be possible, it would seem,until there is greater clarity about what was lost orweakened in the ancient Church through a wrong un-derstanding of the Jewish people and God’s covenantwith them.”
In the next section of the article, Mission and the Jew-ish People, Father notes:
“It is clear that the magisterium (teaching office) ofthe Catholic Church has in the last 40 years consis-tently taught that (1) Judaism is unique among non-Christian religions and (2) dialogue and evangeliza-tion are not to be seen as alternatives, but both arenecessary in relation to non-Christian religions.
After quoting the Holy Father regarding these ideas, Fa-ther states:
“There are two issues here: first, the repudiation of allproselytism, of unworthy forms of evangelism that donot respect the human dignity and socio-cultural heri-tage of the recipients; secondly, there is the question ofsensitivity to what the Jewish people have already re-ceived through their election and through divine rev-elation. The first concerns what forms of religious ex-pansion are morally reprehensible; the second, howpresentation of the gospel to the Jews should differ fromits presentation to gentile peoples.”
In the final section of this article, entitled Mission andthe Identity of Judaism, Father asks how are we to rightlyunderstand the relationship between the covenants if, si-multaneously, we “accept the irrevocability of the cov-enant with Israel” and “also believe in the uniqueness ofthe incarnation of the Son of God and in the saving mys-tery of his death and resurrection?”
Father’s response to this question:“It is characteristic of Catholic magisterial teachingto hold open such challenging questions, allowing andhopefully encouraging further research, and only toact authoritatively to close out unacceptable solutionsthat shortchange some aspect of the mystery. One ‘so-lution’ advocated by some theologians is to emphasizethe salvific character of the covenant with Israel, es-tablishing a real relationship with the living God, andthereby suggesting that evangelization of the Jewishpeople is denying the validity of the first covenant. Insome, this view finds expression in a theory of eachfaith having its own covenant by which its adherentsare saved.“A major figure in the Vatican, Cardinal Joseph Rat-zinger, the prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation forthe Doctrine of the Faith, responsible for doctrinal or-thodoxy in the Catholic Church, clearly does not sharesuch views. In a collection of essays entitled ManyReligions–One Covenant (San Francisco, Ignatius Press, 1999),Ratzinger emphasizes the inherent connectedness of all
Peter HerbeckInside the Vatican (October 2002) contained an article en-
titled, Has the Teaching Changed?, by Peter Herbeck, VicePresident of Renewal Ministries. Peter writes:
“... it is troubling to think that those appointed by theAmerican bishops to spearhead the interreligious dia-logue with the Jewish community are coming up withconclusions that contradict the teaching of scriptureand the Magisterium.”
Later in his article, Peter quotes Fr. David Maria Jaeger,an Israeli-born Hebrew Catholic priest, regarding ‘theChurch’s obligation to seek to fulfill her mission even inIsrael. He states,’
“In Hebrew-speaking Israel this solemn teaching ofthe Council, which in fact simply expands the greatCommission given to the Church by Her Lord Himself(cf. Mt 28:18), is yet to be put into practice. This obedi-ence is not optional, no one on earth has the power toforbid it, and no arguments can be adduced against itfrom contemporary developments in this or that fieldof thought or practice, for ‘the Church has the obliga-tion, and also the sacred right to evangelize (Ad gentes,
7).”Finally, Peter quotes Professor David Berger, an Ortho-
dox Jewish scholar commenting on Dominus Iesus:“The central theme of the entire declaration, under-scored on virtually every page, is that salvation comesin only one essential fashion for all humanity, and thatis through the triune God of Christianity and his em-bodied word; to suggest that Jews, who reject belief inboth trinity and incarnation, attain salvation outsidethis otherwise universal system is to render the docu-ment virtually incoherent.”
Peter concludes“I am afraid that Dr. Berger has a clearer understand-ing of what the Catholic Church teaches than the Catho-lic authors of ‘Reflections ...’”
Fr. Peter HockenMishkan (Issue 36, 2002, Caspari Center for Biblical and Jewish Studies,
Jerusalem), contained an article entitled, Catholic Statementson the Church, the Jewish People and Mission to the Jews,by Fr. Peter Hocken
In the first part of the article, Father reviews variousCatholic statements relating to the Jewish people and somepapal statements that provide guidance in interpretation.In particular, Father focuses on Nostra Aetate.
In the concluding paragraph of the section entitled, TheIrrevocable Covenant with Israel, Father writes:
“There is here a teaching developing that does not seeIsrael’s instrumental-salvific role as limited to givingbirth to the Messiah and to the Christian Church.Rather, through the irrevocable covenant, the Jewishpeople and Judaism are still bearers of divine revela-
15The Hebrew Catholic, No. 78, Winter Spring 2003
the biblical covenants, insisting on the inner continu-ity of salvation history, and the fulfillment of the Torahthrough the Law of the Gospel. ‘The Law is read pro-phetically, in the inner tension of the promise’ (Many Re-
ligions-One Covenant, p.37). He sees their connectedness inrelation to the heart of the Father: their unity is rootedin the unity of their author. ‘The Gospel thus brings theLaw to its fullness through imitation of the perfectionof the heavenly Father.’ (Op. cit., p.33, citing CCC, para. 19680)
“Though Ratzinger does not treat dialogue as recog-nizing the ‘integrity’ of Judaism, his position on theinter-connectedness of the covenants excludes recog-nition of Judaism as an integrally valid way of salva-tion. The rightful insistence on approaching Judaism‘in its own identity’ means that we listen to them seek-ing to recognize all that is true and worthy, refusing tojudge them on the basis of who we are. In particular, Isuggest that it means being alert for elements of divinerevelation and wisdom, expressed in the Old Testamentand maybe also in the New, that never found a place inChristian life because of our rejection of the Jews, yetfound a continuing expression in the Jewish commu-nity.
Roy SchoemanEd. The following appeared as a ‘Letter to the Editor’ of Insidethe Vatican magazine. In this critique, Roy focuses on how Re-flections deprives Catholics of the full truth and beauty of theirfaith and deprives Jews of the true honor and glory of theiridentity and heritage.
As a Jew who has gratefully entered the Catholic Church,I thank you for your thoughtful coverage of the recentUSCCB Reflections document (Inside the Vatican, “A Troubling
Document,” January 2003). An intelligent response to it couldfill a book – in fact, the book I just wrote, Salvation isFrom the Jews (forthcoming later this year from IgnatiusPress), is in many ways such a response. Yet I would none-theless like to make a few comments.
The ‘dual covenant’ theory which has emerged from theU.S. Bishops–sponsored Jewish/Catholic dialogue por-trays Christianity as a modified version of Judaism, oneappropriate for the Gentiles (non-Jews), enabling them toworship the one true God and share the moral and ethicaltruths of Judaism without being part of the special cov-enant which God made with the ‘seed of Abraham’.
Since this both confirms the objective validity of Juda-ism and establishes the inappropriateness of Jewish con-version to Christianity, it is naturally very appealing tothe Jewish side of the dialogue, which is willing, in re-turn, to acknowledge the value and virtue of the Christianreligion and of its founder, the Jew Jesus. It is an idealsolution to eliminate any tension between the two sidesand enable them to be mutually supportive of each others’faiths.
It is, unfortunately, entirely incompatible with the truthsof Christianity. For the Gospel makes abundantly clear thatJesus came first for the Jews, for instance, Matthew 15:24– “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house ofIsrael.” It was to Jews that He said “unless one is born ofwater and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God”(John 2:5) and to Jews that He said: “Unless you eat the fleshof the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life inyou” (John 6:53). Jesus spent his entire life and ministry evan-gelizing Jews, not Gentiles; He was crucified for evange-lizing Jews, not Gentiles (cf. Luke 20:14, John 11:47-53). If Goddid not intend the new covenant for the Jews, then Jesusgot it wrong; St. Peter, the first Pope and the ‘apostle tothe Jews’ got it wrong; St. Paul, the premier theologianfor all of Christianity got it wrong, not only in his epistlesbut in his own conversion and in his repeated sufferingsfor evangelizing Jews; St. Stephen, the very first Chris-tian martyr, stoned for evangelizing the Jews, got it wrong(cf. Acts 6-7); all twelve Apostles, all ‘converted’ Jews, got itwrong; and on and on and on.
The theology presented by Reflections is a tragedy forboth Catholics and for Jews. It is a tragedy for Catholicsbecause it not only sells out the fundamentals of the faith,but it deprives them of seeing the incomparable beauty ofGod’s plan for salvation over its entire span; a plan thatbegins mysteriously at the fall of Adam; which developsthrough the preparation of the Jewish people culminatingin the only perfect human being ever (the Jewish VirginMary), and which is fulfilled in the Jewish Messiah, Jesus,and the Church, the Catholic Church, which He left be-hind.
It also does a disservice to God, for it denies the wordsof His son Jesus; it denies the truths He revealed, and itdenies Him the joy He has in receiving His especially be-loved Jewish people in the intimacy available only throughHis Church and its sacraments.
But it is most of all a tragedy for the Jews, for it de-prives them of the opportunity of knowing the fullness ofthe truth of revelation; it deprives them of the incompa-rable joy and consolation of the intimacy with Godachieved only though the sacraments; it deprives them ofthe eternal salvific benefits which flow from the Churchand the sacraments. And most ironically, it deprives themof the true honor and glory of their own religion, of theirown identity – of being part of the people and the religionwhich brought about the salvation of all mankind, thepeople through whom God became man, the people re-lated to God in the flesh.
Reflections was presumably motivated by charity, how-ever misplaced. I beg the Bishops and all other Catholicsto prayerfully consider where true charity to their Jewish‘elder brethren’ (in the words of John Paul II) lies and toreach out to them with the truth, the full truth, of the glory,the beauty, the importance of being Jewish – a glory whichis found in the truths of the Catholic Faith.
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Vocation of Israel ... remains intactFr. Aidan Nichols, O.P.
Ed. The following selection is taken from Chapter 14: Catholi-cism and Other Religions in the book Epiphany: A TheologicalIntroduction to Catholicism by Fr. Aidan Nichols, O.P. It is re-printed here with permission of the publisher, The LiturgicalPress, Collegeville, MN.Epiphany is now out of print. However, the complete book maybe read at the Christendom Awake web site, developed andmaintained by Mark Alder, a Hebrew Catholic. The url is:
How, then, does the Catholic Church see other religions?We must begin with Judaism, the Church's own root andmother. Not only does our New Testament still contain aletter to the Hebrews - Hebrew Christians, Jewish Chris-tians - but its whole canon bears witness to the pangs ofbirth as the Church emerges from Judaism. We may betempted to think of this as the butterfly emerging from thechrysalis, but this would be to ignore the tragic sense ofloss, breathed by so many pages of the New Testament, atIsrael’s failure to recognize the Christ. There is nothingtragic about the metamorphosis of a caterpillar.
It is true that many Christians understand the Old Testa-ment better than some Jews. It is also true that the Church’sown understanding as the englobing subject of revealedfaith, surpasses in range what Judaism can say of its ownScriptures. Nevertheless, it seems obvious that there mustbe a special inwardness or intimacy in the way that Jewslive with the Hebrew Bible and the other literature thatmade, or reflects, the world of the Gospels. No Gentilecan, for instance, feel the devotion to the Torah that a Jewfeels. No Gentile Christian can grasp the implications ofJesus’ identification of himself as the Torah in person inthe way that a Jew might. In this perspective it is extremelyunfortunate that the church of the Hebrew Christian failedto survive within the Catholica. Had it done so, the uni-versal Church would have included within the unity ofthe same faith, sacraments, and governance communitiesespecially devoted to the memory and observances of theJewish ancestors of the Christian way - a living witnessnot only to non-Christian Jews but to Gentile Catholicismalso.
The principal Jewish objection to the Church where doc-trine is concerned is her affirmation of the divinity ofChrist. However, it can be noted that in the first centuriesof the Christian era, the same theological principle guideda process of internal clarification among both Jews andChristians: the infinite qualitative distinction between theuncreated and the created, ruling out as this does any sug-gestion of intermediate beings or conditions. Just as Juda-ism pruned away its more extravagant apocalyptic imag-ery, and a tendency to angelolatry, so the Church shunnedthe homoiousion (“like in being [to the Father]”) of the
semi-Arians and clove to the view that either Christ isconsubstantial with God or he is of no transcendent sig-nificance whatever. It is possible that it was an initial en-counter with an implicitly heretical Christianity rather thandirect confrontation with the orthodox tradition of theNicene faith that accounts for the vehemence of rabbinicJudaism’s rejection of patristic Christianity.
The main Jewish objection to Catholicism in the realmof practice must be the Church’s mixed record of treat-ment of the Jews in her midst. There were indeed numer-ous verbal and physical attacks on Jews carried out moreor less under Christian auspices. Yet on the whole, andthis is not so often adverted to, higher ecclesiastical au-thority tended to moderate negative action towards theJews either by the populace or by secular princes. It canbe suggested that hatred for Jews on the part of EuropeanChristians was fundamentally a reaction of the residualpagan - the “old Adam” - against the originators of “bond-age” to pure worship and high ethical norms. In this sense,violence against Jews was a rebellion against Christianityitself, under the figure of a less powerful proxy. By thetime of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, we are dealingnot so much with a Christian civilization but with a Euro-pean civilization which a century-and-a-half previouslyhad embarked on a rapid process of de-Christianization.
Judaism’s distinctive continuing light can add to theChurch an orthopractic concern with the mitzvoth, the di-vine precepts, whose actualization is a sign that makespresent the Creator’s reign and a celebration of a total lit-urgy, referring the creation to the Creator and so conse-crating it to God through human agency.
Since Judaism is not in the fullest sense a different reli-gion from Christianity, there can be and are such a thingas Hebrew Catholics, Jews who have entered the Churchbut with every intention of maintaining their Jewish heri-tage intact. They insist with Paul that “God has not re-jected his people whom he foreknew,” for “the gifts andthe call of God are irrevocable” (Rom 11:29). A CatholicChristian, contemplating the mystery of Israel, can be, ac-cordingly, only a qualified supersessionist. Inasmuch asIsrael’s Messiah has come, and fashioned his new com-munity, the call of Israel is indeed superseded. Yet the vo-cation of Israel, to witness that the One who has come istruly her long-expected Savior and that the salvation hewrought is the genuine fulfillment of the promises of theHebrew Bible, remains intact. For the Paul of Romans,the prospect of this perduring election of Israel reachingfull term is a cause of eschatological joy: “If their tres-pass means riches for the world, and if their failure means
Continued on page 21
17The Hebrew Catholic, No. 78, Winter Spring 2003
AHC E-mail Discussion Group
This group was formed to discuss the various themes and is-sues of Fr. Friedman’s thesis, the various pastoral needs of He-brew Catholics and any other matters of related interest. Dis-sent from the Magisterium, political discussions or attempts tochallenge the faith of Catholics are not permitted.
Two ways to participate1. Send a blank email message to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AssocHebrewCatholics(b) There you must first join Yahoo (no cost or obligation)
and then join the discussion group.This option enables access to all past discussions.To respect everyone’s privacy, we include only the initial
letter(s) of each writer’s name.Legend: < italics > indicates a quote from a previous message.
A Little TasteEd. The work of the AHC is directed to preserving the identityand heritage of Jews who have entered the Church. In part, thatincludes the effort to end assimilation. One of the mechanismsby which assimilation occurs is that of “forgetfulness” – theloss of memory that occurs when various aspects of a culturalheritage are no longer lived and experienced.The following exchange is a little taste of how that process ofassimilation begins.
Shalom. I was raised Orthodox and converted aboutthree years ago. Since then I have faithfully been to Mass.During this time I have continued to wear a Kippah andTallism.
Three weeks ago our priest spoke of the early JewishChristians and how they needed to put away Jewish tradi-tions. Father stared at me many times while teaching. Ifelt terrible and have not been to Mass since.
Have any of you had a similar experience? How do youdeal with it. Does not wearing Kippot and Tallism makeus better Christians? I will appreciate your feedback.Todah ... L.
Boy, did I !!! Several months ago, when I casually men-tioned to my (new) pastor that my kids had given me aHebrew dictionary for Christmas, he gave me a half-hourlecture about how Christians need to “move on” and “getbeyond” the “Old Law.” ... Our deacon ... on the otherhand, is very agreeable to including Scripture readings inHebrew at Pentecost Mass next year (among the various“multicultural” readings for that particular Sunday thathave become popular in recent years). ...
So, L., I guess the moral of the story is: find some al-lies in the parish, such as a deacon or DRE. You might
even make an anonymous call to the diocesan Office ofPriest Personnel (just to ask whether such behavior by oneof their priests is to be tolerated, not to “report” him...notyet, anyway). F.
L., that priest is ... very wrong. Where do you think ourBishops and the pope got their Kippot if not from the firstthree centuries of Christian custom. I am also convincedthat the Chasuble is a late fourth century adaptation of theTallis. At the Council of Nicaea, the Bishops from theeast wanted to continue to observe Pascha on the 14th ofNisan, as did the Apostles John and Phillip, but they wereoverruled by the Emperor. The Apostle John continued towear the priestly conicle cap, erroneously called a miterby the Church historian Eusebius. Although still calledPascha, or Passover, in Greek and Latin; the Emperorwanted Easter divorced from Passover observance. Chris-tians continued to observe the Jewish Feasts, except forPurim, until Christianity became the official religion ofthe Roman Empire and were gradually replaced by Ro-man feasts.
Shalom uVrakhah: Pax et Bonum. J.
That priest should be ashamed of himself. He deliber-ately chose to embarrass and alienate you publicly, whenhe ought to have spoken to you privately if he had anyconcerns with your retention of certain Orthodox Jewishcustoms.
In the past, the Church required Jewish converts to giveup all outward signs of “Jewishness” and to start to dressand act like Gentiles, but — correct me if I’m wrong —that injustice and double-standard is thankfully a thing ofthe past. ...
It’s like the argument of some fundamentalists thatChristmas is pagan. Well, so are wedding rings — and sois wearing clothes. Gentiles need not give up all their cus-toms when they convert, but Jews have to? Somebodyexplain that one to me — I don’t get it.
The Bible shows the Apostle Paul and the early Churchcontinuing to practice certain Jewish customs — St. Pauleven took Nazirite vows, and claimed that he never vio-lated the customs of the fathers. Maybe this priest shoulddenounce St. Paul in his next homily. P.
Shalom L. , I am sorry to hear about this priest as I amalways sorry to hear about those in the Church who haveso little appreciation for their Jewish heritage or who haveso little tolerance for those whose customs differ from theirown.
In response to your question - “What do ‘you’ do”, some
The Hebrew Catholic, No. 78, Winter Spring 200318
immediate thoughts come to mind.1. The response of othersMost Hebrew Catholics that I am aware of do not wear
Kippot and Tallism to Mass. The reason most often givenis that it is a distraction or that it sets the Jewish personapart. Focus is then on the person instead of Jesus and Hissacrifice in the Mass.
On the other hand, if you go regularly to the same par-ish, then the distraction should lessen over time as peopleget used to you. In fact, some people will be edified to seea Jewish person who has entered the Church and is nowreceiving Our Lord. But there will always be those whowill be suspicious of your motives.
Hopefully, as we develop a Community within theChurch, the sight of Hebrew Catholics reflecting theirheritage will become more edifying and less distracting.
2. Our responseL., the Church is attempting to change millennia old
negative attitudes regarding the Jewish people - and muchhas already been accomplished. But there is still negativ-ity regarding Judaism and the Jewish people. I still en-counter antisemitism in the Church.
Our response must be to live and witness to the loveand mercy of Jesus. It is through contact with us that thosewho remain negative or antisemitic can encounter a ‘Jew’,can learn more about their own heritage and about theirJewish Lord.
We have to dig deep and be fortified by the Holy Spirit,asking for the strength and wisdom for these encounters.One response that we should never accept is to stay awayfrom Mass and the Eucharist, from our direct encounterwith our Lord and the nourishment He provides. We shouldnever let others separate us from our Lord. If this priest istoo much of a burden for you now, then go to anotherparish, another Mass.
3. Finally, you ask: > Does not wearing Kippot and Tallism make us betterChristians?>
I would have to say unequivocally - NO, wearing K & Tdoes NOT make us better Christians. There is a lot thatcan be said positively, I believe, about Hebrew Catholicswearing K & T. But the measure of being better Chris-tians is how much we love, as understood in the terms thatJesus defined it and taught us by the Church.
Praying that our Lord will give you the strength to bearthese types of encounters, the wisdom to stay close to ourLord, and the heart to love all who offend. D.
Quite a few of our members ... already wrote what theythink you should do. I just wanted to welcome you to ourgroup. Hope we can keep your spirit going.
The priest should turn on EWTN when Bob Fishman ison. He always wears kippa and tallit when he goes to Mass.
And you know what Mother Angelica thinks of any onewho is a “progressive” Catholic... A.
D. & L. : Just to (respectfully!) add my own 2 cents toone of your observations, I would actually encourage L.to continue wearing the K&T to Mass if he feels stronglythat it gives glory to God. To my mind, such garbSHOULD BE no more distracting than the very colorful(and beautiful) ethnic African dresses that some of myfellow parishoners (in my inner city ... parish) wear everySunday. Or the “kinte” cloth overshirts worn by their hus-bands! The Catholic Church is becoming more and morediverse, and L. seems to me to simply be on the “cuttingedge” of that diversity. ...
... “Man looks on the externals, but God sees the heart.”No, you go back, and go “humbly proud,” proclaimingthe God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as the King of theUniverse before whom it is only fitting to wear “holy at-tire.” If this priest was really “progressive” (in the literalsense of the word), he would have had you up in the sanc-tuary last Sunday (Pentecost) alongside the Hispanicand Nigerian lectors giving their simul-readings of theLiturgy of the Word in Spanish & Ibo! FB
As a priest, I would very much agree with what D. hassaid on the question of a tallit gadol and kippah in Mass.Needless to say, it would not present any problems forthis priest if I were fortunate enough to have any Jewishconverts in my rural ... parish. I would be delighted to seethem at Mass.
I would, however, gently observe that we are called uponto exercise the virtue of charity especially to those whoare not particularly charitable towards us. Anonymousdenunciations are not exactly charitable and - quite rightly- are normally ignored anyway. They are normally putinto the ‘recycle’ bin.
The simplest way to resolve the matter would be writeto the Bishop, explain the situation charitably and also thereligious significance of the kippah and tallit for a He-brew Catholic. Ask him for his guidance.
One thing though - wearing a kippah or a tallit does notmake one a better Christian, anymore than wearing a mi-tre or a chasuble.
Best wishes, Fr. M.
Thank you, everyone, for your responses. I needed them.Sincerely in Yeshua and Miriam, Li’hit. L.
<... when I casually mentioned to my (new) pastor that mykids had given me a Hebrew dictionary for Christmas, hegave me a half-hour lecture about how Christians need to“move on” and “get beyond” the “Old Law.” >
Wow! Anti-Judaism dies hard. I am so thankful for JPIIwho has done so much to try and reconcile the Church
19The Hebrew Catholic, No. 78, Winter Spring 2003
with the Jewish people. I wish that more people wouldfollow his lead, especially pastors. Being Jewish is morethan a religion. It is an ethnic heritage and even moreimportant an heritage specifically designed by bothhaShem and Man to glorify the Most High in every aspectof life, even the most minor things that we do.
I remember in the movie “Snow in August” (based onthe book by Pete Hamill), the Rabbi is explaining to thealtar boy why he cannot turn on his own lights duringShabbat and basically tells him it is “to honor God.” Whyis that so hard for people to understand? AS.
<... would actually encourage L. to continue wearing theK&T to Mass if he feels strongly that it gives glory to God.>
I would suggest that if it gives the impression, for in-stance that he is wearing some kind of religious vestmenthe consider not doing so. Jesus is not glorified by tradi-tional manifestations of Jewish piety or even by main-taining aspects of the law, as interpreted by men, such asnot turning lights on Saturday, but by worship of His Body,Blood Soul and Divinity present in the Most Holy Sacra-ment of the Altar and by loving God before all else andour neighbor as ourselves.
Perhaps wearing a yarmulka and Tallis is more akin tothe Pharisees who wanted to be noticed and a distraction,than concentrating on the incomprehensible miracle ofJesus present in Word and Sacrament. The Holy Fatherwanting to reconcile with Jews is not the same as wantingus to appear in Church as Jews whose worship was basedon the Old Covenant which was subsumed into the Newand Everlasting Covenant. Either you believe that or youdon’t. Dc. W.
Dc. W. wrote:< I would suggest that if it gives the impression, for instancethat he is wearing some kind of religious vestment he con-sider not doing so.>
Speaking of wearing ‘religious vestments’ at Mass, Iwas once at Sunday Mass at a parish near home in Florida.At the “Peace of Christ”, when turning around to offer‘peace’ to the people around me I became aware of thisyoung oriental guy in the pew behind me. He was alldressed up in priestly robes, alb, chasuble in a piercinglybright liturgical green, the works. Never saw the guy be-fore or since, but there he was in the pew with everyoneelse, going to Mass cool as a cucumber. The amazing thingwas that nobody batted an eye. Catholics can sure be quirkyat times, can’t we? I often think that the Lord must havean amazing sense of humor. FP
The most important thing about dressing for Mass is totry and not distract anyone from their devotion and prayers.This goes for the underdressed almost naked young la-dies, and the slovenly dressed “we stopped in on the wayback from a picnic”. And the overdressed and bejeweled
women. As long as we don’t call attention to ourselves.Mass is Thanks Giving to God.
As Fr. M . suggested, the Bishop should be consulted.The priest then would have some directions and may evenmention it from the pulpit with happiness rather than criti-cism. But as long as L. is going to church dressed in amagnificent and classic obviously Jewish prayer garb, thereason needs to be clear to all. I am sure L. does not wantto look like he is saying “I am a Jew, and here for a visit,but while here, I’ll go ahead and receive communion”.
Communication channels should be open. You neverknow if the priest was approached by some of thecongregants who seem to be bothered (because of notknowing what’s going on) and rather than consult with L.and then explain from the pulpit, he just “shot from thehip” at L.. AL
So ... should I not wear green to church on St. Patty’sDay? And should my Ibo friend stop wearing his kintecloth to Mass? Should we drop the use of the terms Amen,Alleluia, and Hosanna from the liturgy? Stop having deco-rated Christmas (Yule) trees in church in December? Stopcalling the Lord “Jesus Christ” and call Him “SalvatoreUnctio” instead?
These are all “traditional manifestations of [ethnic] pi-ety,” are they not? Why should “Jewish” piety be singledout for exclusion? FB.
< I would suggest that if it gives the impression, for instancethat he is wearing some kind of religious vestment he con-sider not doing so. >
A valid consideration however disagreeing ... on thismatter I would point out Bob Fishman was received intothe Church while wearing his Kippah & other “religious”vestments.
< Jesus is not glorified by traditional manifestations of Jew-ish piety or even by maintaining aspects of the law, as inter-preted by men, such as not turning lights on Saturday, but byworship of his Body, Blood Soul and Divinity present in theMost Holy Sacrament of the Altar and by loving God beforeall else and our neighbor as ourselves.>
I reply: I’m reminded here of the either/or mentality ofthe Protestants (Examples: the Protestants say: either youlove Mary or you love Jesus; either you go to God throughMary or you go through Jesus, etc). It’s not either/or it’sboth/and. Devotionals EVOLVE in the church and someare taken from pagan practices that have been baptized.Why is it wrong to baptize Jewish piety? The Divine Sac-rament of the Altar makes all our personal piety and devo-tions possible and pleasing to God.
< Perhaps wearing a yarmulka and Tallis is more akin tothe Pharisees who wanted to be noticed and a distraction,than concentrating on the incomprehensible miracle of Jesuspresent in Word and Sacrament.>
The Parushim got into trouble with Yeshua because of a
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defect in their INTENT not their ACTIONS. RememberYeshua being the God-Man knew their thoughts and mo-tivations. We still commit the SAME sins in Catholicismand Judaism has no monopoly on it. I grew up Catholic, Iknow of what I speak. ... J.
I must agree with your opinion regarding the wearingof traditional “Jewish” items as a new sign of devotionwithin the Catholic Church. Not only would it be a uniquewitness to others, just like a Miraculous Medal causes at-tention to the wearer, thus creating new conversations andthe opening of minds, but it also brings a new cohesive-ness to the great question of which came first in Catholichistory, the Jew or the Gentile. Integration of the tradi-tional Jewish items has been a long standing history ofthe Catholic Church. Holy Water fonts, bread and wine,and so many other items within the Mass are so Jewish inorigin, it amazes me that the others haven’t been preservedas well. Perhaps a reinitiation of Hebrew Catholic “sac-ramentals” would be a good idea, especially during an agewhere Traditional Catholics are fighting to keep other ageold Traditions and sacramentals from disappearing fromthe inside of the Catholic Church. (Case in point, the Tab-ernacle and the Stations of the Cross.) Reintroducingsomething as simple as the Tallis as a new (old) devo-tional could bring about a desire of a reintroduction ofmany new (old) devotionals. And aren’t devotionals justa method of humans demonstrating a desire to love, wor-ship and adore a Creator that Loves us beyond our owncomprehension? Pax, Ma.
Last night I slept well for the first time in weeks. Beforesleep though I had settled this problem in my mind, andnow want to share it with you.....as you have all been verykind in your responses to my dilemma.
When I enter the Cathedral, I also enter ‘kavanah’, adeep concentration and acknowledgment that I am com-muning with G-d. I do not look around to compare man-ner or style of dress. That is not my nature. I was underthe assumption that other worshippers were of the samecharacter. That was a mistake on my part.
Until I read your responses, I was unaware that wear-ing of kippot and tzit-tzit may be a distraction to othersaround me. That in some way, I was causing a rift in THEIRkavanah.
Before my conversion, while davening, I found it useful(habitual) to move or sway back & forth. (“All my limbsshall declare, ‘O L-rd, who is like You?’” psalm 35) I nolonger do that... There, you see, a successful change inpersonal ritual. I can adapt, I’ve proven that to myself,over and again.
I can imagine that davening would indeed cause a dis-traction in others. Therefore I should have realized thesame might be true with a kippah and tallit-katan. Although
wearing this garb has always been for me a mitzvah, itwould be against halacha to continue while knowing thatI am causing a division of whatever sort in a house ofG-d.
As I walk towards the Altar to take communion, I notonly know that Yeshua is present and standing before me,but I FEEL it with my whole being, to the core of my soul.As I kneel to receive the Holy Eucharist on my tongue, Ihave always been aware that I am taking the body of ourwonderful Messiah into my own, and felt some “safety”<?> in the fact that my head is covered in the presence ofthe L-rd my G-d.
I still get so terribly excited when thinking about Ye-shua. Our Messiah has really come! And is present withus every day in the Mass! It’s so awesome ... oh, sorry ....I can get carried away at times.
Anyway, to make this short .... uummm, okay, too late.... to make this shorter, I have come to the conclusion thatI will dress as every other Catholic. I will worship as ev-ery other Catholic. And I will find a secure frame of mindto do it (kneeling in the presence of our G-d with headuncovered) and I will not cause a division in my spiritualcommunity.
Thank you all for your responses to my need. I thankG-d for this group. It is so good to be able to turn to otherHebrew Catholics for advice and fellowship.
Todah Rabah. Shalom. L.
L. : Shabbat Shalom. I am an Irish Catholic very famil-iar with and lovingly respectful of Judaism. My heart achesfor you that you are made to feel it necessary to “strip na-ked” just because you have accepted Yeshua as yourMeshiach and L-rd! I live in California and rejoice withthe many who receive our L-rd at Communion as proudVietnamese, Mexicanos, Philipinos, Eretraians, Hmongand others. Baruch HaShem vBaruch Hu. G-d Loves allof his Children just as they are, and has a special attach-ment for you because you have so far felt the need to dressas Yeshua did with the “Outer Garment” the Tallit!
Please, I beg of you, at home keep the Sabbath Candleslit as all Christians did for the first four centuries, and seta joyous (beginning is sorrow of course) Seder Table asYeshua did for His Last Supper (and all of the other Pass-overs He and His family and disciples did all of their lives).Chanukah was very important to the first four centuries ofChristians because it remembered the victory of theMaccabees and gave them hope during their sufferingunder the Romans. The Holy Maccabbes were some ofthe earliest Canonized Saints of the Catholic Church. (forsome strange reason, their Feast is observed in August,and you can check this in any complete Book of theSaints.) From my research, I am convinced that the Ap-ostolic Christians adopted the Havdalah as the paradigmfor the first Eucharist. Just read the opening of the Gos-
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pel of John and see if you can see the lighting of theHavdalah Candle. Naturally, the first Eucharists werecalled HaMotzi in Hebrew as well as “The Breaking ofBread” in Greek because it was at the Hotzi-Matzah ofthe Last Supper the Yeshua gave us Himself and His Agape/Chesed Love.
Shalom uVrakhah:Pax et Bonum. J.<Until I read your responses, I was unaware that wearingof kippot and tzit-tzit may be a distraction to others aroundme. That in some way, I was causing a rift in THEIR ka-vanah.>
Dear L., I was moved by your update and, as a priest, Ithink you have done the right thing even though you wereunfairly treated by another priest.
Perhaps as an English priest looking in from the out-side, I might suggest that there are some tacit assump-tions made by some of the group that condition some ofthe advice that you have received, springing from a spe-cifically American approach and culture. I would stressthat I write as some one who is very much an admirer ofthe USA, treasures the special relationship between Brit-ain and the States, and is what we call over here an ‘Euro-sceptic.’
Belonging to a country with a written constitution and aBill of Rights, an American tends to stress very much hisor her rights. Obviously, this is perfectly correct but it canlead to an over-emphasis of the individual to a diminutionof the sense of the common good. As well as rights, thereare duties - the primary duty for all of us being the duty ofcharity. We have a right within the bounds of decency towear whatever we wish but we also have a duty not to bea source of distraction to our fellow worshippers. As ALcommented, we could unintentionally be sending the mes-sage that we were observant Jews who had wandered intoMass and then wandered up to Communion. We can ex-ercise a right but what if the exercise of that right unnec-essarily upsets our weaker brethren? Certainly, there isscope for education, but in the real world this is not al-ways feasible or realistic in a concrete situation.
The duty of charity is paramount and the fulfilling ofthat duty does not compromise anything.
As I said, I personally would have no problem with aHebrew Catholic in kippah and tallit but I can understandhow this could cause ‘admiratio.’ It is also a little mis-leading to see this as simply another example of ethnicdress such as African robes - it is a religious dress similarin some ways to a Sikh’s turban and dagger, somethingthat can appear as a badge of a specific religious alle-giance. It is certainly permissible for a Hebrew Catholicto wear the kippah and tallit gadol but it is not obligatory,and until a Hebrew Catholic community and identity isfully established and recognized, it might well be counter-productive to insist on ‘rights.’
Your evident love of Our Lord and awareness of His
Presence is the primary thing. You have done the one thingnecessary, and that is far better than simply insisting onone’s rights and making a ‘statement.’
God bless you, Fr. M.
Shalom L., I was moved by your response of charityand agree that you did the right thing.
Hopefully the day will soon come when Catholics ofJewish origin will be welcomed to live their Catholic faithand worship God in accord with their irrevocable giftsand calling. D.
I just read L. ’s message about his decision not to wear atallis and kippah to Mass after all, and it was one of themost moving messages I’ve read in a long time. The wholediscussion was fascinating, and I hope David will includemost of it in the next issue of The Hebrew Catholic. Eachof the different points of view was relevant to what theAHC is doing, and the difficulties we face, and the waywe work together, and the culmination of it all in L. ’s mes-sage was so clearly a work of the Holy Spirit...
L., maybe the priest who was so clumsy and unchari-table in his reaction might be interested in reading theexchange. He might even be converted about a few things.
Fr. M. ’s comment about American Catholics and ouremphasis on rights was right on target, too! MP
Dear L., Yasher koach for your decision in putting thecongregation above your own feelings.
J. said, “I think showing concern for the kavanah of hisfellow parishioners and putting them before himself is atrue Mitzvah. Also L. did so out of respect for halakhah...” the mitzvah of Kavod HaTzibur (honour of the con-gregation).
L. , you know you have our support and prayers. Youcan daven at home in addition, remember. S.
Shalom Chaverim,Just a quick note to say I made it ! I was not struck by
lightning when I knelt in HIS Presence to take Commun-ion with my head uncovered. (another notch in my belt)
Again, Thank you all for your support and advice. Iappreciate you all.
Shalom.(the train who thought he could) L.
riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fullinclusion mean!” (11:12). Hebrew Catholics, meanwhile,have a special place within the Church; their associationenables them to experience a common identity as the pro-totype of the Israel of the end, and not merely a randomcollection of assimilated Jews.
Continued from page 17
The Hebrew Catholic, No. 78, Winter Spring 200322
Ed. Fr. Fride is pastor of Christ the King Church in AnnArbor, Michigan.
As we continue to explore the Jewish impact on Chris-tian literature, begun in our discussion of the works ofJ.R.R. Tolkien in relation to the Jewish legend of theTzohar, the next point of discussion is far more crucialthan a possible relation to a fiction work—it concerns theheart of our belief, the Gospel itself. The essential rela-tionship between Judaism and Christianity has been a topicof discussion since the first century. Much has been saidin particular about the importance of Christians learningmore about Judaism, especially as practiced during thetime of the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Himself, sothat they may more deeply penetrate the meaning of Hiswords.
A classic case in point of this is the content of the Gos-pel of St. Matthew, 18:20. Frequently, when discussingthe Divinity of the Lord Jesus as expressed in the fourGospels, the lion’s share of attention is given to the Gos-pel of St. John. It is thought that that Gospel is the clearestin terms of expressing belief in the Divinity of Jesus, es-pecially through the clear teaching of the Prologue of theGospel itself, e.g.: “and the Word was God.” However, Iwould maintain, that to those who familiarize themselveswith the Jewish background of the times, the Gospel ofSt. Matthew is an even more ringing proclamation of theDivinity of the Lord. Though there are many aspects ofSt. Matthew’s Gospel that could be explored to demon-strate this, I would like to take 18:20 as a classic exampleof a clear teaching that is very Jewish in its content, suchthat its clear statement of the divinity of the Lord Jesusmight be missed by someone reading that verse without aclear understanding of what lies behind it.
The first issue has to do with the use by the Lord Jesusof the expression: “in My Name.” For the person today,that is nothing particularly noteworthy. However, fromthe point of view of the Scriptures, especially the Old Tes-tament it would be an extraordinary usage. In all the Scrip-tures, no human person ever calls his followers to do some-thing in his name. For the Jew, when it comes to the thingsof God, there is only one Name, in which things may bedone. It is the holy Name of God Himself. That Name isso holy that it is protected by a Commandment, and maynot be spoken except with great reverence. The sacredcharacter of the Name of God as understood by the Jew-ish people, even to today, is a well-documented reality.Jesus breaks with Jewish tradition in repeatedly using HisName in a way that had heretofore been reserved exclu-sively for the Divine Name.
However, in 18:20, there is another element that is a
clear assertion that the Lord Jesus is more than simplyhuman. He states that if they gather in His Name, then Hewill be in their midst. This transcends human reality. Weare limited in space and time; yet here the Lord simplysays to His disciples if they gather in His Name, He willbe with them. Some might argue that He is only speakingmetaphorically or symbolically, and, if you simply takethe verse at face value, that might be a reasonable conten-tion. But this is a classic case in point in which knowingthe Jewish background of the verse makes it clear whatthe Lord Jesus is asserting about Himself. Many scholarsbelieve that verse 18:20 is actually a re-working of a pre-viously existing rabbinic teaching from the Mishna. In asection from the Mishnah entitled Pirke Aboth, the fol-lowing verse appears: “If two sit together, and the Wordsof the Law (pass) between them, the Divine Presenceabides on them.” An analysis of this verse comparing itwith St. Matthew 18:20 yields some interesting results.First, consider the parallels:Pirke Aboth, 3:2 Gospel of St. Matthew, 18:20
two two or moreword of Torah Name of the Word made flesh
Divine PresencePresence of the Lord Jesus HimselfThe Lord Jesus is the word made flesh. In this rework-
ing of the rabbinic verse, the Lord Jesus is equating twogathering in His Name with two studying the Torah. Thesubsequent parallel result is what so strikingly affirms HisDivinity. It equates the divine Presence with His own pres-ence. In other words, just as studying the Torah results inthe Divine Presence resting on those two, so too does thepresence of the Lord Jesus rest on those who gather in HisName. Some scholars see this reworking of the rabbinictext as a deliberate assertion of the Divinity of the LordJesus, and not just an ‘indiscriminant’ divinity, but the veryDivinity of the God of the Old Testament.
To hear those words from the lips of the Lord Jesus musthave utterly shocked those Jews who heard Him, espe-cially those more educated who were familiar with thispassage from the Mishna. They would see it as a doubledeclaration of Divinity. First, because He equates HisName with the Divine Name, gathering men to Himself.Second, because the consequence of that gathering is thatHis presence would be in their midst, even as the DivinePresence rests on those who study the Law. There wouldhave been no confusion in their minds as to what He wasasserting.
However, to the casual reader today, unaware of ei-ther the significance of the use of the phrase “in My Name,”or the background behind the reworking of the rabbinictext, the richness of the meaning of this verse and the mag-nitude of its proclamation of the Divinity of the Son mightbe lost—a clear argument for the wisdom of gaining greaterfamiliarity with the ‘Jewishness’ of the Gospel!
In My NamePart 2 – Fr. Ed Fride
23The Hebrew Catholic, No. 78, Winter Spring 2003
Ed. Fr. Michael Lewis is pastor of St. Michael’s, Brecon,United Kingdom.
‘Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put downin writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit.’
Catechism of the Catholic Church: 81
When we look at the sacred text of Scripture, we areindeed looking at the very words of God. When we reador listen to those words, God speaks to us in human words.Behind each word lies the God who loved us before everwe were made. Eternity is present in these holy words,infinity in these letters, and beyond the letters, we enterinto the silence of God Himself, for Scripture itself is buta translation, albeit God’s own, of that silence into speech.
The words of Sacred Scripture are the words of God.They are words within the Word who took our human na-ture to Himself from the womb of Miriam. The same Spiritwho overshadowed Miriam overshadowed these words ofmen, and turned them into His words.
Just as the Word took our humanity from the Virgin’swomb, so God takes our words in all their fragility andweakness to Himself, and makes them His own. That sameSpirit who hovered over the face of the primeval deephovered over the sea of human words, over the chaos ofletters, and through the free collaboration of the humanwriters, transmuted them into the very speech of God. Thisis the divine alchemy by which base metal is transmutedinto gold.
The creation of the universe is mirrored in the creationof Sacred Scripture. Just as God separated the light fromthe darkness on the first day, so He drove away all dark-ness of error from Sacred Scripture. All was done by thedivine speech.
The Jewish sages call the words in Genesis by whichthe world was made ‘the ten words of creation.’ Rightlythen was the first of the ‘words’ of creation, the trium-phant word ‘Let there be light’, for God’s word is a lampto our feet and a light to our path. With Him is the foun-tain of life and in His light, we see light.
Those words of God are put down in human speech inthe Hebrew language, the holy tongue, a language whichin itself has so much to tell us about our faith. All wordsare contained in the one Word that the Father has spokenfrom all eternity. It was therefore most fitting that the firstlanguage into which that speech should be set down inwriting was Hebrew for the outstanding feature of He-brew is its shining quality of light and its radical direct-ness.
The Holy TongueCanon Michael Lewis
In its fundamental structure, the holy tongue points tothe Trinity whose signature is on all that is made. MostHebrew words derive from a root form that consists ofthree consonants and thus Hebrew itself is a reminder ofGod who is Three in one.
Hebrew has an alphabet of twenty-two letters that origi-nally denoted only consonants, although w, y and h areused to represent vowels in certain positions. The lack oftrue vowels raises questions as to how the text is to bevocalised for, although a system developed of represent-ing vowels by adding points to the consonants, the pointsthemselves are not part of the inspired text of Scripture.
Imagine an English sentence without vowels (mgn nnglsh sntnc wtht vwls) or a linguistic world where poten-tially ‘bg’ could be read as ‘bag,’ ‘beg,’ ‘big,’ ‘bog’ or‘bug.’ This absence of true vowels is a reminder to us of aprofound truth: we can only read God’s word as set downin writing in the Hebrew Scriptures because of tradition.It is tradition that teaches us how to read the text, how tomark the vowels and so to vocalise the written word. Asthe Psalmist wrote: ‘God has spoken once: twice I haveheard him.’ (Ps. 62: 12) There is but one Word but we hearthat Word in Scripture and in Tradition. The Protestantdoctrine of ‘sola scriptura’ is profoundly unscriptural.
The Hebrew Scriptures were originally written in theform of continuous strings of letters, with no breaks be-tween the words. The great achievement of the Masoretes(fifth to tenth century) was to set down the oral traditionon how the Bible was to be read. The Bible is always abook that has to be interpreted though tradition for with-out tradition, that which has been handed down, we wouldbe unable even to read the Old Testament.
One of the main characteristics of Hebrew is that it islanguage of the concrete and of the physical. As a lan-guage, it reaches out to touch and to celebrate the worldthat God has made. Hebrew eschews the abstract and theintangible but delights in what can be seen, heard, touched,tasted and smelled. It is not the language of philosophersbut of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: it was supremely fittingthat Hebrew and its sister language, Aramaic, should havebeen the languages of the Incarnate Word, the Word madeflesh when He dwelt among us.
As we know, some time in the second or third centuriesafter the birth of Our Lord, Hebrew ceased to be a ver-nacular language, a victim of the grim aftermath of thefailure of the Second Jewish Revolt. Like Latin in the DarkAges, it remained as a language of faith, scholarship, lit-erature and learned discourse. In a miraculous way start-ing at the close of the nineteenth century, Hebrew has beenrevived as the language of ordinary people and is trulyreborn as a vernacular language. How wondrous is thefact that once again Hebrew is spoken as a living tongue,vibrant and renewed, in the land of Yeshua and Miriam,the land of the Promise made to Abraham so long ago.
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The Eucharist and the Jewish Mystical TraditionPart 2 - Athol Bloomer
Ed. Athol is a lay missionary with the Missionary Societyof Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament. This series reflectstalks that Athol gave in the early 1990’s.
The Four RabbisA story is told about four Torah scholars (Rabbis) who
entered into the mystical realm. One returned from themystical ascent insane, one still orthodox (according toRabbinic Judaism), one as a heretic, and another as a Chris-tian. The rabbi that remained strictly Orthodox was RabbiAkiva who proclaimed Simon bar Kokba as the Messiahin the 2nd century. Thus, as a Hebrew Catholic I must querywhether Rabbi Akiva was deluded by Satan (as an angelof light) in his attempt at the mystical ascent. The rabbithat came back a Christian was the famous Rabbi Simeonben Zoma who was a contemporary of Rabbi Akiva.
Eucharistic CentredIt is only through Yeshuah and his shed blood that one
can safely attempt the mystical ascent, and such an ascentmust be totally Eucharistic centred. St. Teresa of Avilaand St. John of the Cross, both from Judaeo-Conversofamilies, reveal the completion of the Jewish Kabbalah inthe Revelation of Yeshuah as the Messiah. Avila was acentre of medieval Jewish Kabbalah – so it is quite pos-sible that Teresa and John would have been familiar withthe Jewish understanding of the mystical ascent. The sevencastles of St. Teresa mirror the seven palaces (heikhalot)of the early Kabbalah tradition. The famous compiler ofthe Zohar, Rabbi Moses de Leon, was centred with hisKabbalistic school in Avila. That the Jewish Kabbalah istruly ancient can be seen in that St. Paul and St. John theBeloved seem to be familiar with its images and symbol-ism. The Egyptian theology of the Ennead is a corruptedversion of this same mystical tradition. Later misuse ofKabbalah can be seen in Lurianic Kabbalah and its off-spring Freemasonry. These both distort the Kabbalah intoan occultic direction.
Wisdom and UnderstandingHokmah (Wisdom) is also called Reshit (Beginning) and
is associated with the creation of the Universe in the firstword of the Bible Bereshit (In the Beginning). ThusHokmah is linked to Dabar (the Word) which brings forthall creation. St John in John 1 confirms this Jewish con-cept linking Wisdom, creation and the Word. Binah (Un-derstanding), the third Sefirah of the Head Triad, is seenas the Divine Womb or Mother. She receives the seed, thepoint of Hokmah and conceives the lower Sefirot. Binahon one level can be associated with the Holy Spirit as the
Spirit of Understanding. In Catholic tradition the HolySpirit and Mary are so united as to call Mary the Spouseof the Holy Spirit. Mary, like the Spirit, became a divinewomb or Mother receiving the seed of divinity (the Di-vine Word or Wisdom) and conceiving the God-Man. Therole and function of Mary is so united to the Holy Spiritthat Mary (Miriam ha Kadosha) is the perfect mirror ofthe Holy Trinity.
On one level each Sefirah in each Triad can represent aperson of the Holy Trinity. Also each of the three Triadscan also represent one of the persons of the Trinity. TheHead Triad with the Father, the middle Triad with the Sonand the Lower Triad with the Holy Spirit. In the HeadTriad Keter represents the Father, Hokmah the son andBinah the Holy Spirit. Within the Middle Triad Din repre-sents the Father, Hesed the Holy Spirit and Tif ’eret(Rachamim) with the Son. In the Lower triad Hod repre-sents the Father, Netzach the Holy Spirit and Yesod theSon. The dynamic of reaction within the family of theGodhead is animated by Hesed. Hesed is the blood of theDivine Body.
In one sense then we can say that Mary is the daughterof Keter, the mother of Hokmah and the spouse of Binah.Binah is the mother of the seven lower sefirot that makeup the Mystical Body (Adam), just as Mary is the Motherof the Body of Christ – the Church.
The Eucharistic MysteryThis heavenly or mystical understanding of the Sefirot
opens up a fuller understanding of the unity of the God-head with the Church and with each member of the Church.It is only through the Eucharist that this mystery of unitycan be found. The Eucharist is the way to the mysticalunion or marriage of the soul with the Heavenly Bride-groom. It is Eucharistic Adoration that helps sanctify thesoul in preparation for that mystical union. The outwardappearance of the Eucharist is in time and space but withinthe veil it is beyond time and space and the whole mys-tery of the Heavenlies and the Trinity is encompassedwithin the Sacred Host, as a portal to the Divine realm.The Trinity dwells not so much in the heights but in thedepths of the Sacred Host of the Altar – which is the Sa-cred Heart.
The Reapers of the Holy FieldThe Jewish mystical tradition calls the masters of the
mystical wisdom the Comrades or the Reapers of the Field.This field is of course the Apple Field mentioned above inconnection with the Shekinah and the Song of Songs. TheApple Trees of this Holy Field or Orchard are the sefirotfrom Hesed to Yesod. The Zohar links this concept of the
25The Hebrew Catholic, No. 78, Winter Spring 2003
Holy Apple Orchard with the Heavenly Bread similar tothe Heavenly Manna. To understand the Heavenly mys-teries and to make the mystical ascent one must feed onthis Heavenly Food or Dew. This Bread is Jesus himselfproclaims John 6. St. John the Beloved, as his name sug-gests, is a master of this mystical tradition of the AppleTrees of the Song of Songs of the Beloved. Thus John andPaul, both Jewish Rabbis, can be called Reapers of theHoly Field. Thus today the true Reapers of the Field arethose who enter in to the Eucharistic Mystery and spendtime feeding on the Eucharistic Lord through the Massand Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration. The Zohar says:
“Come and see; Every single day, dew trickles downfrom the Holy Ancient one to the Impatient One, andthe orchard of holy apple trees is blessed. Some of thedew flows to those below; holy angels are nourishedby it, each according to his diet, as it is written: “Ahuman ate angel bread” (Psalm 78:25) Israel ate of thatfood in the desert. Rabbi Shimon said: ‘Some peopleare nourished by it even now! Who are they? The Com-rades, who engage Torah day and night. Do you thinkthey are nourished by that very food? No, by some-thing like that very food...’.”
The Divine BodyThe Divine Body of the Sefirot is not only Trinitarian
but is the Divine Body of the Messiah/Word (the Primor-dial Adam) himself. The first Triad represents his role asKing, the second triad his role as Priest and the Third Triadhis role as Prophet. The Divine Body is the Son as thevisible manifestation of the invisible Deity as stated bySt. Paul. Man (Adam) is created in his image and like-ness. Man also has the sefirot as the make up of his spiri-tual emotive being. The Sefirot in the Godhead are of onesubstance with the Deity. The Sefirot emanate from theDeity (Ein Sof/Father) in the sense of generation and pro-cession. In man the Sefirot of his spiritual self (soul pow-ers) are a created illumination made in the image and like-ness of the Divine Sefirot. These sefirotic soul powers arereunited by the Holy Spirit with the Divine Sefirot (At-tributes) in baptism and we regain the full likeness of Godwhich was lost in the Fall and is relost each time we fallinto mortal sin. In Eucharistic Adoration this likenessgrows from glory to glory.
The Zohar proclaims that the Shekinah is also KnesetYisrael, the mystical community of Israel and that all ofIsrael are her limbs (Zohar 3:231b). thus the Church, theNew Israel, is the Shekinah seen as Bride of God. Theshekinah as the Eucharistic Presence is so connected withthe Church, that both are seen as Shekinah. It is the Churchwhich possesses and brings forth through its priesthoodthe Presence of the Eucharistic Lord. Therefore the con-cept of the Sefirot shines a light of understanding on theunity between Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit: andthe unity between Christ and the Church: and the unity of
the hearts of Jesus and Mary: and the unity of the soulwith the Divinity. The Shekinah as Bride is seen as a daugh-ter of Binah (Understanding) also called Moon, just asMary is the Moon (or Understanding) of Israel and theMother of the Church. As noted above Miriam ha Kadosha(Holy Mary) is the spouse of the Holy Spirit (or Binah)and Mother of the Eucharistic Lord (the Shekinah).
The TorahWhat is the Torah? Jewish people call the first five books
of Moses the Torah, they also use the word Torah for thewhole of Scripture and the oral Tradition. Thus the wordTorah is associated with the term Word of God (Dabar).The Jewish tradition claimed that the Patriarchs also kept‘Torah’ so that Torah was not just the giving of the Torahon Mt Sinai. The giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai is seenas the earthly garments of the heavenly or Primordial To-rah. In Kabbalah, as handed down by Rabbi Isaac the Blindof Provence, it states that:
“It is written ‘God by Wisdom founded the Earth’ (Prov-
erbs 3;19). Wisdom (Hokmah) is nothing other than To-rah due to the number of its commandments. Also itsname was Amon before the world was created, as it iswritten “It was by Him, as an architect (Amon)” (Prov-
erbs 8:30).”Thus Torah as Wisdom and word of God is part of the
divinity itself – and the commandments of the Torah areonly an earthly garment of this Primordial Torah. Thus itcan logically be said that Jesus as Wisdom and Word ofGod is the Living and Primordial Torah who took on fleshin the Incarnation. The garment Torah cloaked itself in, inthe Old Covenant, was only temporary whereas Jesus asLiving Torah (as the early Jewish Christians called him)took on human nature for eternity – thus elevating man tolevel of Divinity. Rabbi Isaac the Blind of provence fur-ther reveals that from the Primordial Torah was drawn asingle name – Hesed (Love/mercy/Lovingkindness). StJohn the Beloved also states that God is Love (Hesed).Rabbi Isaac explains that this power Hesed (which is theDivinity himself) is divided into three forces – from thesethree forces emanate the ten sefirot. Thus Kabbalah statesthat the Torah is based on Love (Hesed). Jesus sums upthe Torah as Love of God and neighbour. God is Hesedand Jesus is Hesed incarnated. The angelic salution of Maryas ‘full of Hesed’ (meleat ha Hesed) proclaims that Maryas Mother of God is full of Hesed or full of Jesus/God.Thus the way of the spiritual life must be the way of Hesed.
David Goldstein in his book Jewish Mythology (p.24)
states that:“... the Torah then became personalised as a kind ofartisan, a medium by which the creation of the worldwas set in motion, and the whole creative processplanned. In this sense it may be seen as Logos, or thedivine word... Connected with the idea that the Torahwas present at God’s side at the creation is the view
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that the letters of the Hebrew alphabet were in them-selves instrumental in the formation of the world. Thisview is most directly put at the beginning of the SeferYezirah (The Book of Formation), which was attrib-uted to the Patriarch, Abraham... It states that the worldwas created by the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabetand the ten numbers, which together form the 32 pathsof understanding.”
This corresponds with the Christian idea founded in theNew Testament that Jesus is the Alef and Tav (in Greek,Alpha and Omega), the first and last letters of the Hebrewalphabet which encompass all the letters, and are thus theDivine Word. The first line of the Bible states “Bereshitbara elohim et” (In the Beginning created God the). The‘et’ is alef and tav. It is through this alef and tav which isthe divine Word that the creation occurred. This teachingof Judaism is confirmed by the first chapter of John’s gos-pel. The Zohar tells us that this ‘et’ is the Shekinah and 3Enoch tells us that the Shekinah dwelt with Adam andEve in the Garden. The Zohar considers this as a greatmystery or secret. The Hebrew word for mystery or secretis ‘sod’. The eastern Church refers to the Seven Sacra-ments as the Holy Mysteries and the early Church referredto the Eucharist as the Great Secret. Thus the Latin term‘sacramentum’ corresponds with the Hebrew ‘sod’. Zoharteaches that the Shekinah is a great ‘sod’ and the Churchrefers to the Eucharist as one of the seven great Mysteriesof the new covenant.
Dangers of PowerWhen one seeks the mystical way or kabbalah to gain
more power rather than love as did many of the LurianicKabbalists, one enters into evil –Sitra Ahra (the Other Side)and encounters the Evil One (Satan) and his demons oftenas ‘angels of light’. The followers of Rabbi Isaac Luria(mid 16th century) took the authentic Jewish mystical tra-dition of Kabbalah centred on Love (Hesed) and used ormisused it to gain power over spiritual entities not distin-guishing between invoking angels or demons. The Scrip-tures forbid the occultic practice of summoning spirits-thus the Lurianic mystics generally follow occultic prac-tices which seek power rather than love. Freemasonry andtheosophy owe much to this perversion of Kabbalah. TrueKabbalah (such as found in Zoharic Kabbalah) warns thatto seek power (Gevurah) without Hesed is to enter in toevil – the Other Side. The rigid code of legalistic obser-vance found in Shulhan Arukh, that seems to me to belacking in love, was compiled by a Lurianic KabbalistRabbi Joseph Karo (1488-1575) of Safed. He was guidedand instructed by a spirit guide – a ‘maggid’ or celestialteacher. Rabbi Morris Margolies in his book A Gatheringof Angels states:
“Lurianic Kabbalists were also given to summoningangels and demons by using intricate combinations ofthe names of God, literally numbering in the hundreds.
They did not think of this as magic (though, in effect, itwas), since God himself was the means by which theywere seeking certain ends.”
Thus Lurianic Kabbalism has introduced occultism intoJudaism and the Jewish tale of Joseph della Reina is awarning of this perversion of Kabbalah. The movementof the false messiah Sabbetai Zvi (1626-1676) also fol-lowed Lurianic Kabbalah and fell in to sexual as well asspiritual perversion. The only safe way to enter into themystical realm is through Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament– the God of compassion. In the Eucharist we enter themystical realm in and through and with the power of hisPrecious Blood which is the hesed of the Divine Body.
Apocalypse 19 and KabbalahApocalypse 19 describes Jesus in kabbalist imagery.
Jesus is seen in a mystical way crowned with many crowns.The Kabbalah equates the ten sefirot with crowns. So Johnis proclaiming that Jesus is crowned with the attributes ofGod himself – with the many crowns of the Divinity’sAttributes or Sefirot. Jesus’ title of ‘King of Kings andLord of Lords’ is seen inscribed in his thigh or right side.Kabbalah states through the teaching of Rabbi Isaac theBlind:
“The world was created in the right side of the HolyOne, blessed be He ... In the right side of the Holy One...was engraved all the inscriptions which were destinedto change from potentiality to actuality, due to the ema-nations of all the crowns which are inscribed, pressedand formed in the degree of Loving kindness (Hesed).”
This majestic Divine King is described, in other parts ofthe Apocalypse of John, as the ‘Lamb that was slain’ asthe Eucharistic Lord. Kabbalah only finds its true fulfill-ment in the Eucharistic mystery as proclaimed by theKehilla of the Messiah. It is the mystery of humility. Theeyes of pride cannot perceive this key to the divine mys-teries. It is only given to the childlike and the humble.Jesus is the humble (Aniv) Righteous (Tzaddik) King ofthe Old Testament prophecy who is even more humblenow, as a prisoner of Love in the tabernacles of the world,than when he walked Israel 2000 years ago. The whole ofthe Jewish tradition, culture and religion was a prepara-tion for mankind to understand this divine mystery of thePaschal or eucharistic mystery – but only a minority ofmen have been able to comprehend this mystery. How-ever during the Eucharistic reign of Jesus over the earthwhich is the triumph of Mary’s Royal and ImmaculateHeart (i.e.her heart full of Hesed), all men will see theglory unveiled of the Eucharistic Lord.
The Blood of JesusThe Kabbalah also sees the ten sefirot as the cloak or
garment or Tallit (Prayer Shawl) of the Godhead. This Tallitis also seen as the Divine Light in which God encompassesHimself. Jesus is the Divine Light that has come into the
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world according to the New Testament. Apocalypse 19reveals this cloak or Tallit as soaked in blood. This bloodis the Love (or Hesed) of God poured out for mankind.Love or Hesed is the principle of unity and life in theGodhead and in time and space manifests as the blood ofJesus. The Divine mercy devotion links Hesed with thePrecious Blood. The Old Testament sees blood as the prin-ciple of life and thus sacred. Man was made in the imageand likeness of God and this is why we can explain theheavenly mysteries as a Divine body in which the bloodthat animates its life is Hesed.
“And now I saw heaven open and a white horse ap-pear; its rider was called Faithful and True; he is ajudge with integrity, a warrior for justice. His eyes wereflames of fire, and his head crowned with many crowns,the name written on him was known only to himself,his cloak was soaked in blood. He is known by the name,the Word of God. Behind him dressed in linen of daz-zling white, rode the armies of heaven on white horses.From his mouth came a sharp sword to strike the pa-gans with; he is the one who will rule then with an ironsceptre, and tread out the wine of almighty God’s fierceanger. On his cloak and on his thigh there was a nameinscribed; The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords”(Apocalypse 19:11-16).
The symbolism of this whole passage is Kabbalistic andcomes alive with hidden depth when seen in the light ofKabbalah. The glorious coming of the Lord with the cloudsof Heaven is here seen as the God of Justice coming inJudgement (Din/Gevurah) but that Din covered with Hesed(the Precious Blood). The beings on white horses are theHeavenly company of the angels and saints (who theEpistle to the Hebrews calls a great cloud of witnesses),the white horses are the power of God. In apocalypse 11and 12 the heavens are opened and this same Divine Kingis seen with Mary as the Ark of the Covenant as well asthe divine child in the womb of the pregnant Queen-Mother(Givirah) – this imagery is completely Eucharistic. At othertimes such as in Apocalypse 5 and 6 the heavens open toreveal the Divine Liturgy (Mass). The whole Book of theApocalypse is a Eucharistic exposition. It is the story ofthe lamb. That lamb is revealed as our Eucharistic Lord. Itis the story of the battle between the Eucharistic Lord andthe beast that would destroy the Eucharist. St. John is cel-ebrating the Eucharist on the Lord’s Day when he is takenup into the Divine Liturgy in heaven. It is through theEucharistic consecration that Jesus and his sacrifice be-come present on the altar – and a portal or vortex is openedup with heaven or eternity here on earth. By receiving theEucharistic Lord in Communion we are already startingto enter into the Eternal life of God as explained in John’sGospel. The true mystical life cannot be separated, sincethe coming of Christ, from the Eucharist as its central andsupreme point. Any mystical movement that doesn’t havethe Eucharist at its heart is not authentic. All the mystical
Catholic saints saw the Eucharist as essential and centralto their mystical spiritual life.
The Immanent GodThe Jewish tradition saw that the Divine Presence in
the Temple above the Ark of the Covenant was the pointat which the Immanent God entered his creation and main-tained it. God’s presence is the Eucharist in today’s worldand it is this way through the Eucharist that the ImmanentGod manifests His love and power into His creation. Themore that perpetual Adoration is spread – the more loveand power flows from these Eucharistic gateways fromthe heart of God. Zohar 1:7h states that the Shekinah (theReal Presence) is the gate to the Divine. It is adoration ofthis Divine Presence that opens this gateway and allowsthe Power (Din/Gevurah) and the Love and Mercy ( Hesed)to flow from the heart of God (the Sacred Heart). 1 Kings9:3 proclaims that the Shekinah is the eyes and the heartof God – and Catholic belief proclaims that the Real Pres-ence of the Blessed Eucharist is the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
“The LORD said to him, ‘I grant your prayer and theentreaty you have made before me . I consecrate thisHouse you have built; I place my name there forever;my eyes and my heart shall dwell there perpetually”(1 Kings 9:3).
To Be Continued
A Light Touch From our Web SiteAll in the Family
Four young novice nuns were about to take their vows.Dressed in their white gowns, they came into the chapelwith the Mother Superior and were about to undergo theceremony to marry them to Jesus, making them Brides ofChrist.
Just as the ceremony was about to begin, four HasidicJews with yarmulkes, long sideburns and long beards camein and sat in the front row. The Mother Superior said tothem, “I am honored that you would want to share thisexperience with us, but do you mind if I ask you why youare here?”
One of the Jews replied, “We’re from the groom’s fam-ily.”
“Cover your head so that reverence for G-d be uponyou.” [ Shabbat 156b ]
A Dad asks his son if he would like to make ha motzi(blessing over bread) but the son has come to the tablewithout head cover, so he asks the younger son to put hishand on the older son’s head while he says the blessing.
After a few seconds the younger son takes his hand awayagain. “What are you doing?” says Dad, “He hasn't fin-ished the blessing!” The younger son answers, “Am I mybrother’s kippah?”
The Hebrew Catholic, No. 78, Winter Spring 200328
From our book shelves
In this column, we bring to your attention items that have re-cently been published or that have recently come to our atten-tion. Most likely, we have not reviewed the items presented. Wequickly examine each item to assess whether it is related to thethemes of our work.
As always, your comments are welcome. We are always lookingfor people to review books that are related to our work. If youare willing to write a review, please let us know.All items are available from us for the price indicated plus ship-ping.
The Glory and the ShameReflections on the 20th Century Outpouring of the Holy SpiritFr. Peter Hocken
“The Glory and the Shame is a comprehensive portrayal of the worldwide 20th-century charismatic movement in all its complexity. It is the work of a scholar, whohas experienced most of what he writes, and sets the work of the Holy Spirit in thecontext of Christian unity and the second coming.
“Peter Hocken’s overview is exciting, demanding, fearless: God’s surprises areemphasized; the link between Pentecost and the Second Coming is dominant; thepivotal role of Israel is brought sharply into focus; the responsibilities of the world-wide contemporary church are highlighted.”
Hallowed be Thy NameReflections on the Divine Name in Sacred ScriptureFr. Michael Lewis
“The New Testament, just like the Old, is filled with the language of the Name: theDivine Name stands for the person and the power of God. Just as the Old Covenant isfulfilled in the New, so too is the reverence of the people of Israel for the ineffableDivine Name (‘YHWH’) transformed into Christian reverance for the name of Godincarnate. The Name of Jesus is our interface with the Lord himself; the hallowing ofhis Holy Name is a way of prayer that is readily accessible to all – a simple way thatis capable, with God’s grace, of utterly transforming our spiritual lives.
“In this new work, Fr. Michael Lewis explores, in the light of Scripture and Chris-tian Tradition, the mystery and wonder of the Holy Name, and its cultural expressionsin the Jesus Prayer of the East, and the devotion to the IHS monogram (spread by St.Bernardine of Siena) in the West. In his reflections upon Scripture, he illuminates theJewish roots of the Christian spiritual tradition, and offers new insights on Creation,and the transforming effect that the Incarnation has upon the world.”
Andrew relates his journey from holocaust survivor to “com-pleted Jew.” With Fr. Friedman, he helped launch the interna-tional Association of Hebrew Catholics and started the AHCnewsletter in May 1980.
